tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26811929416674833512020-06-06T14:43:00.552-04:00Manhattan Unlocked Historical and Architectural Walking ToursBook a premium walking tour and discover the unbelievably rich and inordinate history of Manhattan.
Robert Amellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06084801755976271616noreply@blogger.comBlogger25125ManhattanUnlockedhttps://feedburner.google.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2681192941667483351.post-46585095423761305452011-06-05T13:37:00.002-04:002016-10-25T22:43:38.823-04:0042nd Street to the Battery: 1855<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div>The last post showed the city from 63rd Street to the Battery&nbsp;by putting together&nbsp;two pictures from the 1850s.&nbsp; Here&nbsp;they are&nbsp;again; <a href="http://manhattanunlocked.blogspot.com/2011_05_01_archive.html">click here</a> to read the original post.&nbsp;&nbsp;A painted line&nbsp;runs down&nbsp;Fifth Avenue&nbsp;in both pictures, and you can see the dome and flag of the Crystal Palace on 42nd Street in both. The top one is from 1855, the bottom from 1858.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-6MGDjrtwZEA/Teu1fWA2lEI/AAAAAAAAB30/4vbA2CZcj4k/s1600/lattingAAAA.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><strike><img border="0" height="231" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-6MGDjrtwZEA/Teu1fWA2lEI/AAAAAAAAB30/4vbA2CZcj4k/s400/lattingAAAA.JPG" width="400" /></strike></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Ibr1ymWsiOI/Teu12qzOzLI/AAAAAAAAB34/mbC8_6MO978/s1600/Final+6a.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="137" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Ibr1ymWsiOI/Teu12qzOzLI/AAAAAAAAB34/mbC8_6MO978/s400/Final+6a.JPG" width="400" /></a></div><br />This post looks more closely at the first image.&nbsp; Most people know that the city grew from the bottom up, but what stands out is how much the city also appears to have grown&nbsp;from the outside-in. Many of the blocks in&nbsp;the center&nbsp;of the island have only a handful&nbsp;of structures.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-eh-vabdbRKY/Teu2GE3Tk1I/AAAAAAAAB38/ipJXZ0wUp2A/s1600/Final+5.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-eh-vabdbRKY/Teu2GE3Tk1I/AAAAAAAAB38/ipJXZ0wUp2A/s1600/Final+5.jpg" /></a></div><br />There are a few notable geographic features visible in the picture.&nbsp; Murray Hill was a swath of land owned by a wealthy Quaker family during the Revolution.&nbsp; It’s where Mrs. Murray famously (perhaps apocryphally) delayed general Howe with her hospitality, allowing General Washington and the Continental Army to escape&nbsp;to the north of&nbsp;the island. As good Quakers, though, the Murrays&nbsp;did not take sides in the Revolution (and their economic interests, which were mainly shipping, straddled both sides).&nbsp; For their neutrality, many&nbsp;Quakers were&nbsp;expelled after the Revolution, and although they were permitted to return a short time later, many opted to remain in&nbsp;England. <br /><br />You can detect the&nbsp;slope in the terrain of the actual hill extending from around 39th Street&nbsp;downtown&nbsp;past where the Empire State Building is today.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-aFu_A7Pw-60/Teu2Z6RJyuI/AAAAAAAAB4A/jNyeCIEiuDc/s1600/latting55.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-aFu_A7Pw-60/Teu2Z6RJyuI/AAAAAAAAB4A/jNyeCIEiuDc/s1600/latting55.JPG" /></a></div><br /><div style="text-align: left;">And you can see the Murray Hill railroad tunnel that today is&nbsp;an&nbsp;8&nbsp;block-long covered traffic tunnel&nbsp;running down the middle of Park Ave&nbsp;south of&nbsp;Grand Central.&nbsp;&nbsp;Below, the future tunnel appears&nbsp;as&nbsp;narrow empty blocks between&nbsp;the two&nbsp;sides of Park Avenue (then, 4th Avenue) that straddled the sunken passage. Today&nbsp;Park Avenue&nbsp;has one of the widest medians of any of the avenues, the only indication above ground of the dozens of railroad tracks running below the avenue from Grand Central (to the left out of the scope of picture) up to 96th Street.&nbsp;&nbsp; </div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-RuYUTsU3i3g/Teu2sdIW-3I/AAAAAAAAB4I/k6hHh3HDGc0/s1600/Final+6.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-RuYUTsU3i3g/Teu2sdIW-3I/AAAAAAAAB4I/k6hHh3HDGc0/s1600/Final+6.jpg" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><br />The passage was&nbsp;cut through Murray Hill so the railroad wouldn’t have to climb up it.&nbsp; After 1855 (the year of the picture), railcars were required to be horse drawn below 42nd Street so as not to be a nuisance to the growing population.&nbsp; Here’s the tunnel today.&nbsp; (I made these especially big and they overlap the side panels, but it's worth it to see the pictures).<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-18_qXfQVJwU/Teu2znjh5dI/AAAAAAAAB4M/0BdgPSNaxJM/s1600/final+8b.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="337" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-18_qXfQVJwU/Teu2znjh5dI/AAAAAAAAB4M/0BdgPSNaxJM/s400/final+8b.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br />It’s also interesting to see what an ordinary road Broadway was in this part of town.&nbsp; Back in&nbsp;1855 above 23rd Street it was&nbsp;the Bloomingdale Road, and&nbsp;would be renamed The Boulevard&nbsp;in 1866, finally taking&nbsp;the name Broadway in 1899.<br />&nbsp; <br />And there’s&nbsp;a good reason Madison Square and Herald Square do not appear to be significant parts of town…<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-_Jo4wQ17Y9s/Teu3Lg5pmFI/AAAAAAAAB4Q/QDLho5gl09k/s1600/latting555a.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="286" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-_Jo4wQ17Y9s/Teu3Lg5pmFI/AAAAAAAAB4Q/QDLho5gl09k/s400/latting555a.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br />The center of town back in 1855 ran the stretch of&nbsp;Broadway from&nbsp;today’s NoHo and&nbsp;SoHo all the way to to City Hall.&nbsp; The town center would begin its shift to Madison Square&nbsp;around 1859, with the construction of the Fifth Avenue Hotel.<br /><br />Here’s&nbsp;a rather dramatic view&nbsp;from the same perspective,&nbsp;using Google Earth.&nbsp; The NYPL and Bryant Park have replaced the reservoir and the Crystal Palace (though that structure only stood five years, 1853-1858).<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-knAt02zMnlQ/Teu3kiFhjtI/AAAAAAAAB4Y/ohcMOZWz6Ms/s1600/valentines+image.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="337" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-knAt02zMnlQ/Teu3kiFhjtI/AAAAAAAAB4Y/ohcMOZWz6Ms/s400/valentines+image.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-fNSaNI4I144/Teu3tEwC4VI/AAAAAAAAB4c/EHix1lRwfvA/s1600/valentines+image3a.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="337" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-fNSaNI4I144/Teu3tEwC4VI/AAAAAAAAB4c/EHix1lRwfvA/s400/valentines+image3a.JPG" width="400" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-O4rZcZbadXw/Teu32ENNCAI/AAAAAAAAB4g/gSljuAcAtFs/s1600/valentines+imageii.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="337" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-O4rZcZbadXw/Teu32ENNCAI/AAAAAAAAB4g/gSljuAcAtFs/s400/valentines+imageii.JPG" width="400" /></a></div><br /><br />The commercial center of the city moved&nbsp;up Broadway, which from the tip of the island&nbsp;to&nbsp;within a few blocks of&nbsp;Union Square is uncharacteristically straight. The Bowery (in yellow) was the high ground, and the main route in and out of lower Manhattan though most of history. The&nbsp;city grew first up&nbsp;the Bowery before&nbsp;Broadway bridged Canal Street and the center of the city&nbsp;shifted over to Broadway&nbsp;around the 1830s.<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/ManhattanUnlocked/~4/jsZo-d9WXSc" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>Robert Amellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06084801755976271616noreply@blogger.com75http://manhattanunlocked.blogspot.com/2011/06/42nd-street-to-battery-1855.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2681192941667483351.post-4235458967210023702011-05-19T13:48:00.028-04:002011-05-27T00:34:55.134-04:00The Big Picture of New York in the 1850s (Literally)(2nd Ed. 5/20/11) <br /><a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TdU_pxhlRII/AAAAAAAAByg/74VPuVUwgtI/s1600-h/latting10001.jpg"><img alt="latting1000" border="0" height="295" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TdU_qoSEQAI/AAAAAAAAByk/k4H9PAEeO9c/latting1000_thumb1.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="latting1000" width="400" /></a><br /><br />Old landscape drawings and panoramas of the city can be mesmerizing. And they’re not just curious, interesting images of the past. Each is a one-of-a-kind, information-rich artifact. In a time when we record more data about the city in an hour than we did through <i>all </i>of its first 300 years, these images tell a rare story of the city’s growth.<br /><br />This post takes two old panoramas and puts them together, creating a super-panorama of the mid-19th century city.&nbsp; Amazingly, they are just three years apart in the 1850s, and show contiguous parts of the city.&nbsp; <br /><br />A month ago, I was researching St. Patrick’s Cathedral and saw a panorama I’d seen many times before. It showed an industrious, bustling town from 42nd Street to the Battery. The date was 1855. Later the same day I saw another wide-angle view of the city, this one was from <i>Valentine’s Manuel</i>.&nbsp; It depicted a more rural, uptown city, and was from 1858, just three years after the first one. Put together, the two pictures show the island from just inside Central Park all the way to the Battery. <br /><br />A single building can be seen in both images, the Crystal Palace.&nbsp; And we should start there anyway since it will bring us to the first panorama (shown at the opening of this post). <br /><span style="font-family: Lucida Sans Unicode;"><br />&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Lucida Sans Unicode;"><a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TdU_hRpG7nI/AAAAAAAABxs/5Xp5_FO1wqA/s1600-h/400pxNew_York_Crystal_Palacei.jpg"><img alt="400px-New_York_Crystal_Palacei" border="0" height="300" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TZ9EXvMvi1I/AAAAAAAABxw/Qisad-o0RPw/400pxNew_York_Crystal_Palacei_thumb.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="400px-New_York_Crystal_Palacei" width="498" /></a></span><br /><div style="font-family: inherit;"><br />The Crystal Palace stood where Bryant Park is today.</div><div style="font-family: inherit;"><br />The monumental glass and cast-iron structure was supposedly fireproof. According to the <i><a href="http://www.encyclopediaofnewyorkcity.org/">Encyclopedia of New York City, </a></i> it “opened on 14 July 1853 as the site of the first world’s fair in the United States, an event entitled, ‘Exhibition of the Industry of All Nations,’…. [The fair] exhibited the products of agriculture and industry, and housed a collection of sculpture; it was also the first world’s fair to exhibit paintings in a picture gallery.” It's amazing to think about all the inventions<i> Gotham</i> lists, they were the height of technology.</div><blockquote style="font-family: inherit;">Crowds roamed the building’s halls past shimmering fountains and glaring clusters of gas lights, marveling at the miracles of the age, great and small: scales, meters, guns, lamps, safes, clocks, carriages scientific instruments, agricultural instruments, a Fresnel lighthouse lens, telegraphy and photography equipment, fire engines, ships and plans for an elevated railroad above Broadway&nbsp; [which would be built about 30 years later]. And machinery, everywhere machinery—machinery to pump water, sew, print, finish wood, refine sugar, set type, make ice cream, and wash gold. </blockquote><div style="font-family: inherit;">Here is a Fresnel lighthouse lens (in case you were wondering)…<br /><br /></div><a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TdU_in7J3DI/AAAAAAAABx0/wIrlSqDLhWI/s1600-h/Fresnellighthouselens4.jpg"><img alt="Fresnel lighthouse lens" border="0" height="378" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TdU_iwfA3gI/AAAAAAAABx4/DvrSZroMRDE/Fresnellighthouselens_thumb2.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="Fresnel lighthouse lens" width="364" /></a> <br /><div style="font-family: inherit;"><br />The building had an astonishingly short life, just 5 years, from 1853 to 1858. The purportedly fireproof building had wooden floors and burned down in 1858.&nbsp;&nbsp;</div><div style="font-family: inherit;"><br />Across the street from the Crystal Palace on the north side of 42nd Street was the Latting Observatory, built about 1854.&nbsp; But it was also constructed of iron and wood and <i>it </i>would burn down in 1856!</div><br /><a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TZ9EX8vVtWI/AAAAAAAABn8/ot3IbTL3J7Y/s1600-h/NewYorkCrystalPalace5.jpg"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Lucida Sans Unicode;"></span></a><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Lucida Sans Unicode;"><a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TZ9EX8vVtWI/AAAAAAAABx8/6A8GWmAEEgE/s1600-h/NewYorkCrystalPalace1.jpg"><img alt="NewYorkCrystalPalace" border="0" height="388" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TZ9EYnmem3I/AAAAAAAAByA/ah7tKTQmByM/NewYorkCrystalPalace_thumb1.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="NewYorkCrystalPalace" width="499" /></a></span><span style="font-family: Lucida Sans Unicode;"> </span><br /><div style="font-family: inherit;"><br />Here’s the site today from about the same perspective, near the corner of 40th Street and 6th Avenue, Bryant Park. The WR Grace Building is about where the Latting Observatory stood. <br /><br /></div><a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TdU_koz_g8I/AAAAAAAAByE/BWu0rnWqLnU/s1600-h/GE200021.jpg"><img alt="GE20002" border="0" height="426" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TdU_lOR_4fI/AAAAAAAAByI/3yjZsKCB8CE/GE20002_thumb.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="GE20002" width="498" /></a> <br /><div style="font-family: inherit;"><br />If you don’t know the WR Grace building (Bunshaft, 1974), it’s one of the most recognizable buildings in the city. A little originality goes a long way on 42nd Street.<br />&nbsp; </div><span style="font-family: Lucida Sans Unicode;"><a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TdU_lv1w6pI/AAAAAAAAByM/hU4jGGZqAMo/s1600-h/1114SixthAvenue1.jpg"><img alt="1114-SixthAvenue" border="0" height="381" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TdU_mvPqJyI/AAAAAAAAByQ/8mF2q-6FCYk/1114SixthAvenue_thumb.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="1114-SixthAvenue" width="499" /></a> </span><br /><div style="font-family: inherit;"><br />The Latting Observatory housed a demonstration of Elisha Otis’s new safety elevator. But it only went up two floors and guests had to climb to the top of the tower to take in the view.&nbsp; Which someone did to make our first image.<br /><br /></div><span style="font-family: Lucida Sans Unicode;"><a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TdU_nwys3kI/AAAAAAAAByU/3MHVIrHHABQ/s1600-h/Latting_Observatory1.png"><img alt="Latting_Observatory" border="0" height="618" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TdU_pW3jDNI/AAAAAAAAByc/JG5UzSD8rHs/Latting_Observatory_thumb.png?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="Latting_Observatory" width="496" /></a>&nbsp;</span><br /><div style="font-family: inherit;"><br />From 1855.… See the dome of The Crystal Palace in the foreground on 42nd Street? The Croton Aqueduct Distributing Reservoir (where the NYPL is today) stands to the left of the Crystal Palace. <span style="font-family: inherit;">See the people walking along the walls of the reservoir?&nbsp; It was a favorite activity of Edgar Allen Poe.<br /></span>&nbsp; </div><a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TdU_pxhlRII/AAAAAAAAByg/74VPuVUwgtI/s1600-h/latting10001.jpg"><img alt="latting1000" border="0" height="430" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TdU_qoSEQAI/AAAAAAAAByk/k4H9PAEeO9c/latting1000_thumb1.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="latting1000" width="583" /></a><br /><div style="font-family: inherit;"><br />The East River and Long Island are to the left, and the Hudson River and New Jersey are to the right.&nbsp; What is most striking is how clearly the city was growing in a certain pattern, from the outside in.&nbsp; Fifth Avenue (the road coming out of the left corner) is relatively undeveloped compared to the avenues at the sides. In fact, bands of activity belted the island—ports for shipping were on water, factories and warehouses lined the shore, and shanties and tenements for the working class occupied the avenues and streets a few blocks in from the shore.&nbsp; The interior was left in relative quietude. And the wealthy elite, who had been moving up Fifth Avenue since the 1830s, would march though this spot on Fifth Avenue in a phalanx of brownstones in the coming decades. <br /><br /></div><a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TZ9EcDXNV6I/AAAAAAAABoU/AeIhvVSfROw/s1600-h/lattingi24.jpg"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Lucida Sans Unicode;"><img alt="lattingi2" border="0" height="356" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TZ9EcznJxRI/AAAAAAAABoY/62Gxgc-dp30/lattingi2_thumb2.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="lattingi2" width="670" /></span></a><br /><div style="font-family: inherit;"><br />In 1855, 42nd Street was used intermittently as a cattle drive. To the far right was (is) Hell’s Kitchen, already with dozens of slaughterhouses on 10th Ave. To the left (east), where the UN is today, was Dutch Hill, one of the poorest shantytowns with bottom-of-the-barrel industries like bone-boiling.<br />&nbsp; </div><div style="font-family: inherit;">Now here's the next image, from <i>Valentine’s Manuel.&nbsp;</i> It shows a very different New York in 1858 (three years<i> later</i>).&nbsp; The view is from 63rd Street, just inside the new Central Park, and again Fifth Avenue is coming from the lower left of the picture. You can see the dome of the Crystal Palace to the right. This stretch of road will have many full and half-block mansions before it becomes home to the Plaza Hotel, Tiffany’s, Trump Tower, St. Patrick’s Cathedral, and Rockefeller Center. NBC and CBS will broadcast their national morning news programs from here.<br />&nbsp; </div><a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TZ9EVshhLQI/AAAAAAAABno/UzCPUGzDLrw/s1600-h/valentines192134.jpg"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Lucida Sans Unicode;"><img alt="valentines 19213" border="0" height="386" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TZ9EWtOybsI/AAAAAAAABnw/tWUw0G4FINA/valentines19213_thumb21.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="valentines 19213" width="635" /></span></a><br /><div style="font-family: inherit;"><br />The workers are creating Central Park, the designs for which were approved the same year in 1858. You don’t see the Latting Observatory because it burned down two years earlier, in 1856. The Crystal Palace will meet the same fate a few months after this picture was made in 1858.<br /><br />The big building is St. Luke’s Hospital, between 54th and 55th Streets, which will move up to Morningside Heights in the 1890s.&nbsp; Across from St. Luke’s is the unfortunately named Deaf and Dumb Asylum, which was taken over by Columbia University in 1857, and will also move up to Morningside Heights in the 1890s.&nbsp; </div><div style="font-family: inherit;"><br />Prominent in history, but not visible because it would be behind St. Luke’s, is the Colored Orphan Asylum, attacked in the horrific week-long Draft Riots of 1863 (five years after this image).&nbsp; The orphanage was 10 blocks behind St. Luke’s, and one block north of the Crystal Palace. It stood on Fifth Avenue between 44th and 43rd Streets, and was literally around the corner from the Crystal Palace.&nbsp; </div><div style="font-family: inherit;"><br />Both images will be looked at in more detail in next posts.<br />&nbsp; </div><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Lucida Sans Unicode;"><a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TZ9ET-8Id9I/AAAAAAAAByo/DSCDqnmdGQY/s1600-h/valentines192121%5B1%5D.jpg"><img alt="valentines 19212" border="0" height="305" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TZ9EU8T1H5I/AAAAAAAABys/7kM0dS30x3w/valentines19212_thumb.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="valentines 19212" width="589" /></a></span><br /><span style="font-family: Lucida Sans Unicode; font-size: xx-small;"><i>Valentines Manual, 1921</i></span><br /><span style="font-family: Lucida Sans Unicode; font-size: xx-small;"><i>&nbsp; </i></span><br />Here are the two images side-by-side (or top-to-bottom).&nbsp; A line is painted down Fifth Avenue to connect them.&nbsp; Together, they'll give you a sense of the city’s uptown growth like you’ve never seen before. <br /><div style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></div><a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TdU_wyS5_HI/AAAAAAAABzQ/123YAWx0hxE/s1600-h/lattingAAAA6.jpg"><img alt="lattingAAAA" border="0" height="384" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TdU_xvBqAhI/AAAAAAAABzU/pmHSB3-XRo4/lattingAAAA_thumb4.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="lattingAAAA" width="631" /></a><a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TdU_ycBUVBI/AAAAAAAABzY/BQCQK2Aowzg/s1600-h/Final6a4.jpg"><img alt="Final 6a" border="0" height="235" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TdU_y8lVrrI/AAAAAAAABzc/91NajTtbOjU/Final6a_thumb2.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="Final 6a" width="633" /></a><br /><blockquote><span style="font-family: Lucida Sans Unicode;"></span></blockquote><div style="font-family: inherit;">I was surprised at how little development there was in this part of town, so late.&nbsp; And remember, the lower image was three years<i> after</i> the image above it.&nbsp; </div><div style="font-family: inherit;"><br />And you can almost pinpoint the uptown growth in 1858, somewhere around the mid-50s. This zoom-in floored me. Currently about the most expensive real estate on Earth, in 1858 was cow pasture.&nbsp; You can see the exact boundary of progress, the buildings almost seem to be eying the cows!</div><div style="font-family: inherit;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-hFM6AxWea7s/TdVHLQQ1FXI/AAAAAAAAB2s/b7saijagCf8/s1600/Final+7.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="579" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-hFM6AxWea7s/TdVHLQQ1FXI/AAAAAAAAB2s/b7saijagCf8/s640/Final+7.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><div style="font-family: inherit;"><br /><br /></div><span style="font-family: Lucida Sans Unicode;"> </span><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/ManhattanUnlocked/~4/W4cmRYg0Ve8" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>Robert Amellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06084801755976271616noreply@blogger.com34http://manhattanunlocked.blogspot.com/2011/05/big-picture-of-new-york-in-1850s.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2681192941667483351.post-76313276789676161062011-05-03T07:04:00.008-04:002011-05-11T01:29:22.330-04:00WTC Progress 2<div style="font-family: Georgia,&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif;">No commentary along the way. An afternoon walk around the World Trade Center and the things I encountered, May 2, 2010. </div><a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/Tb_SFLSIRaI/AAAAAAAABr0/P8EcUnJv6ZI/s1600-h/IMG_2873%5B7%5D.jpg"><img alt="IMG_2873" border="0" height="428" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/Tb_SFtOF2rI/AAAAAAAABr4/QrOMR_po_xU/IMG_2873_thumb%5B5%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border: 0px none; display: inline;" title="IMG_2873" width="553" /></a> <br /><br /><a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/Tb_SGRmOerI/AAAAAAAABr8/wPpAbzYOz_E/s1600-h/IMG_2875%5B6%5D.jpg"><img alt="IMG_2875" border="0" height="430" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/Tb_SG8Uvl1I/AAAAAAAABsA/3F3WUYXWGEc/IMG_2875_thumb%5B4%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border: 0px none; display: inline;" title="IMG_2875" width="559" /></a> <br /><br /><a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/Tb_SHXq2PhI/AAAAAAAABsE/AAVF_sdGLEc/s1600-h/IMG_2877%5B8%5D.jpg"><img alt="IMG_2877" border="0" height="435" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/Tb_SH4YHktI/AAAAAAAABsI/daejy9AUo8s/IMG_2877_thumb%5B6%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border: 0px none; 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display: inline;" title="IMG_2929" width="556" /></a> <br /><br /><a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/Tb_S1Pg4bFI/AAAAAAAABwE/1SIxGjqefDY/s1600-h/IMG_2933%5B5%5D.jpg"><img alt="IMG_2933" border="0" height="423" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/Tb_S1smrJKI/AAAAAAAABwI/4ke_q1Zsy2o/IMG_2933_thumb%5B3%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border: 0px none; display: inline;" title="IMG_2933" width="554" /></a> <br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-iBieOOE6Ts0/TcZWnOty7dI/AAAAAAAABxk/D3ACQ2uzbE4/s1600/IMG_2935.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-iBieOOE6Ts0/TcZWnOty7dI/AAAAAAAABxk/D3ACQ2uzbE4/s640/IMG_2935.JPG" width="640" /></a></div><br /><br /><a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/Tb_S2D-1mvI/AAAAAAAABwM/8DeWF9Z1upg/s1600-h/IMG_2944%5B5%5D.jpg"><img alt="IMG_2944" border="0" height="420" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/Tb_S2dw99tI/AAAAAAAABwQ/ux-va3qnRzU/IMG_2944_thumb%5B3%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border: 0px none; display: inline;" title="IMG_2944" width="550" /></a> <br /><br /><a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/Tb_S3K-qiOI/AAAAAAAABwU/r_LL_yylGiw/s1600-h/IMG_2946%5B6%5D.jpg"><img alt="IMG_2946" border="0" height="423" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/Tb_S3uOR2yI/AAAAAAAABwY/lAHq0KL4hpk/IMG_2946_thumb%5B4%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border: 0px none; display: inline;" title="IMG_2946" width="551" /></a> <br /><div style="font-family: Georgia,&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif;">I continued along the sky way&nbsp; a few feet into the next building, and a cruise ship passed by the window.</div><a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/Tb_S4azRSpI/AAAAAAAABwc/BUOmN40CjDI/s1600-h/IMG_2954i%5B5%5D.jpg"><img alt="IMG_2954i" border="0" height="391" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/Tb_S40XwK3I/AAAAAAAABwg/aPHx3UhJfZE/IMG_2954i_thumb%5B3%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border: 0px none; display: inline;" title="IMG_2954i" width="543" /></a> <br /><br /><a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/Tb_S5gqmwQI/AAAAAAAABwk/0Ay9MN9YSdc/s1600-h/IMG_2955i%5B5%5D.jpg"><img alt="IMG_2955i" border="0" height="311" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/Tb_S6FxPWtI/AAAAAAAABwo/lxrVAhsqh70/IMG_2955i_thumb%5B3%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border: 0px none; display: inline;" title="IMG_2955i" width="553" /></a> <br /><br /><a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/Tb_S7BMj4dI/AAAAAAAABws/MjQyL4xR33g/s1600-h/IMG_2956i%5B5%5D.jpg"><img alt="IMG_2956i" border="0" height="411" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/Tb_S72GNSVI/AAAAAAAABww/cFejFQqSGJs/IMG_2956i_thumb%5B3%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border: 0px none; display: inline;" title="IMG_2956i" width="550" /></a> <br /><br /><a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/Tb_S8XGUcTI/AAAAAAAABw0/JXgwDCKcjlU/s1600-h/IMG_2958%5B5%5D.jpg"><img alt="IMG_2958" border="0" height="413" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/Tb_S839ghpI/AAAAAAAABw4/fFHIiaFjo-o/IMG_2958_thumb%5B3%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border: 0px none; display: inline;" title="IMG_2958" width="541" /></a> <br /><br /><a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/Tb_S92ujgsI/AAAAAAAABw8/T8Ek-YrqhF0/s1600-h/IMG_2959%5B5%5D.jpg"><img alt="IMG_2959" border="0" height="419" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/Tb_S-c6NoRI/AAAAAAAABxA/X0KqRspaGxE/IMG_2959_thumb%5B3%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border: 0px none; display: inline;" title="IMG_2959" width="549" /></a> <br /><br /><a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/Tb_S_Ld3sgI/AAAAAAAABxE/0PlokhYjkhI/s1600-h/IMG_2960%5B5%5D.jpg"><img alt="IMG_2960" border="0" height="418" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/Tb_S_mX3JuI/AAAAAAAABxI/_EtlN7uk3f4/IMG_2960_thumb%5B3%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border: 0px none; display: inline;" title="IMG_2960" width="548" /></a> <br /><br /><a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/Tb_TAT3EGMI/AAAAAAAABxM/7V_z8ji0M4s/s1600-h/IMG_2962%5B5%5D.jpg"><img alt="IMG_2962" border="0" height="422" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/Tb_TAy2bx5I/AAAAAAAABxQ/T5LMKIW_sMI/IMG_2962_thumb%5B3%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border: 0px none; display: inline;" title="IMG_2962" width="553" /></a> <br /><br /><a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/Tb_TBYkXDHI/AAAAAAAABxU/KcX4yphbj8Q/s1600-h/IMG_2964%5B5%5D.jpg"><img alt="IMG_2964" border="0" height="413" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/Tb_TBySrMUI/AAAAAAAABxY/xYckImjyJm4/IMG_2964_thumb%5B3%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border: 0px none; display: inline;" title="IMG_2964" width="542" /></a> <br /><br /><a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/Tb_TCNLbhUI/AAAAAAAABxc/YBTZ80H0qZM/s1600-h/IMG_2970%5B5%5D.jpg"><img alt="IMG_2970" border="0" height="416" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/Tb_TCo2dw8I/AAAAAAAABxg/qMK_OaW7Bqw/IMG_2970_thumb%5B3%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border: 0px none; display: inline;" title="IMG_2970" width="544" /></a><br />If you want to see a post from November, 2010, about the <a href="http://manhattanunlocked.blogspot.com/2010/11/wtc-progress.html">WTC Progress, click here</a>.<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/ManhattanUnlocked/~4/9TM39Es4myU" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>Robert Amellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06084801755976271616noreply@blogger.com4http://manhattanunlocked.blogspot.com/2011/05/wtc-progress-2.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2681192941667483351.post-50151655513995805142011-03-12T00:59:00.018-05:002013-09-03T00:45:43.121-04:00In and Around the Bowery TheatreThis post builds on <a href="http://manhattanunlocked.blogspot.com/2011/03/bowery-chatham-square-then-and-now.html"><i>The Bowery &amp; Chatham Square</i></a>, heading up a few blocks to where the Manhattan Bridge comes into Canal Street.&nbsp; The Bull’s Head tavern dominated the area as the unofficial headquarters of the cattle market from the Colonial days of the 1750s up until 1825, when society elites set their sights on transforming the area and building an upscale theatre in the cattle yard of the Bull's Head. This post will poke around the area, recount some of the rich, dynamic history of the Bowery theatre, and see what’s left from yesteryear.&nbsp; <br /><br />Below is the area we’re looking at.&nbsp; The curved yellow line (#1), was the subject of the earlier post<i>; </i>this post looks at area #2.&nbsp; Together, they make up the eastern border of “traditional” Chinatown. Just for reference, City Hall Park is outlined in green; Five Points’ exact location (and the original streets that actually made the “five points”) looks like a partial asterisk; and the straight green line shows Division Street, the boundary between the Delancey and Rutgers farms.&nbsp; Everything <i>was</i> incredibly close.<br /><br /><a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TXrEZEk3odI/AAAAAAAABf8/JO0GCbds_U0/s1600-h/cemeteryiii9.jpg"><img alt="cemetery iii" border="0" height="422" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TXrEZ1E2mnI/AAAAAAAABgA/Avl1FtQc8-U/cemeteryiii_thumb5.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="cemetery iii" width="495" /></a> <br /><br />Early geography goes a long way in explaining why these areas developed the way they did.&nbsp; Here’s the Viele map with the same landmarks identified…<br /><br /><a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TXrEa4vuTLI/AAAAAAAABgE/lmqvi_5hmDM/s1600-h/Cemeteryvielemap3ai4.jpg"><img alt="Cemetery viele map3ai" border="0" height="496" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TXrEb_EBHTI/AAAAAAAABgI/g7Gz21Q4vbU/Cemeteryvielemap3ai_thumb2.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="Cemetery viele map3ai" width="510" /></a> <br /><br />City Hall Park fits snugly on a patch of high ground; Five Points was a noisome area of stinking, sinking landfill built over the Collect Pond; and Chatham Square was the first solid ground one encountered leaving downtown on the Boston Post Road.&nbsp; You can absolutely see and feel the different terrains walking the area today! <br /><br />At the Bowery and Canal Street today, it’s impossible to get a feeling for how this area once related to the Lower East Side.&nbsp; It’d always been a major north-south conduit, but the opening of the Manhattan Bridge in 1909 obliterated its eastern approach and flipped its orientation, becoming an east-west thoroughfare and a Long Island-New Jersey link. &nbsp; <br /><br />At this historic corner today, the bronze-topped Republic National Bank (1924, Clarence Brazer) is in a very sorry spot to be appreciated, and many architectural guides ignore it.&nbsp; This is a good picture only because the photographer (the <i>New York Daily Photo</i>) is standing on a no-man’s land of traffic islands. (See the Woolworth Building to the left? It’s across from City Hall.) <br /><br /><a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TXrEcgxognI/AAAAAAAABgM/hFbsmRIVEZM/s1600-h/NYDailyPhoto5.jpg"><img alt="NY Daily Photo" border="0" height="386" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TXrEdFNpg1I/AAAAAAAABgQ/OZwwHzvFm5U/NYDailyPhoto_thumb3.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="NY Daily Photo" width="499" /></a><br /><i><span style="font-size: xx-small;">Courtesy of New York Daily Photo</span></i><br /><br />Likewise, the Manhattan Bridge Arch and Colonnade (1915, Carrere and Hastings) might be an impressive monumental work…somewhere else.&nbsp; Like the bank across the street, you can’t see it until you’re upon it; no long street vistas provide the distance needed to appreciate it.&nbsp; The orange pylons permanently accessorizing it don’t help either.&nbsp; The Confucius Plaza apartments at the right (1976, Horowitz &amp; Chun) has a&nbsp;unique curve that is identifiable from many blocks around. <br /><br /><a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TXrEdjkMJFI/AAAAAAAABgU/UgDiml0c-Ng/s1600-h/GEmanhattanbridge5.jpg"><img alt="GE manhattan bridge" border="0" height="426" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TXrEeI1aldI/AAAAAAAABgY/aHNdAP-q33w/GEmanhattanbridge_thumb3.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="GE manhattan bridge" width="498" /></a> <br /><br />To see their relative positions, this is looking east along Canal Street to the Manhattan Bridge entrance.&nbsp; The Bowery crosses in front. Making a right turn and hugging the corner…<br /><br /><a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TXrEeqr4sHI/AAAAAAAABgc/xDCzd3SJPsU/s1600-h/GEbankbridge5.jpg"><img alt="GE bank &amp; bridge" border="0" height="428" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TXrEfYVusmI/AAAAAAAABgg/2pGvzUZXuxI/GEbankbridge_thumb3.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="GE bank &amp; bridge" width="501" /></a> <br /><br />…the Bowery Theatre stood from 1826 until 1929 where Jing Fong is now, the tan building with the red lettering; an excellent restaurant for dim sum which we’ll come back to in a bit.<br /><br /><a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TXrEf0GtQFI/AAAAAAAABgk/5FdDW38Hm50/s1600-h/IMG_24415.jpg"><img alt="IMG_2441" border="0" height="381" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TXrEgT0ZrrI/AAAAAAAABgo/T9eKOS_9goQ/IMG_2441_thumb3.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="IMG_2441" width="499" /></a> <br /><br />But from the 1750s until 1825, the block above was the last stop where, according to <i>Gotham</i>, “upstate drovers like Daniel Drew were herding an estimated two hundred thousand head of cattle across King’s Bridge each year and making their way, accompanied by hordes of pigs, horses, and bleating spring lambs, down Manhattan to Henry Astor’s Bull’s Head tavern and adjacent abattoirs.”<br /><br /><a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TXrEhJD355I/AAAAAAAABgs/g2doTADdMQg/s1600-h/BullsHeadtavern5.jpg"><img alt="Bull's Head tavern" border="0" height="299" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TXrEh8IulVI/AAAAAAAABgw/-bF7zLglHX8/BullsHeadtavern_thumb3.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="Bull's Head tavern" width="522" /></a> <br /><br />New York was unique, for a coastal city, in having a thriving cattle market, and no other place in Manhattan resembled more the “wild west” (still decades away) than Chatham Square in the early 1800s—and the anchor was the Bull’s Head tavern.&nbsp; George Washington, the tavern’s most famous patron, stopped here on Evacuation Day, 1784.<br />&nbsp; <br />The theatre would actually occupy the site of the cattleyards<i>,</i> to the left.&nbsp; The tavern itself would, according to Kenneth Dunshee’s <i>As You Pass By</i>, become “the New York Hotel and still later was occupied by the Atlantic Garden.”<br /><br />The idea of erecting an upscale theatre at this spot was a curious one. Even with respectable residences and markets, and stores like Lord and Taylor and Brooks Brothers nearby, the immediate area around the Bull’s Head had always been working class.&nbsp; Since 1732 the main theatre in town had been the Park, just down the road and across from City Hall.&nbsp; According to Mark Caldwell's <i>New York Nights,</i> “the half-dozen blocks that separated the Park and the Bowery Theatres, short in distance, crossed the city’s social and economic Maginot Line, and the upper strata of the town soon rebelled at the prospect of evenings at the Bowery.” <br /><br />But the elite consortium that sought to transform the area around Chatham Square (which included Henry Astor himself, the owner of the Bull’s Head) had its mind on <i>uptown</i> when making their plans for the theatre. Terry Miller’s <i>Greenwich Village and How it Got That Way</i> explains what had been going on a half mile up the Bowery during the twenty years leading up to the purchase of the Bull’s Head:<br /><blockquote>In 1804 [John Jacob] Astor took over a large tract above Great Jones Street, which he opened as Vauxhall Gardens, an early version of Central Park but run as a business for profit. It acted as a magnet drawing the rich to the area, prompting them to construct their splendid new homes on Great Jones Street. When property values peaked in 1826 Astor closed most of Vauxhall Gardens to sell of the land for development.&nbsp; He ran a broad road through the center of the property, three blocks without a cross street, and named his creation Lafayette Place.</blockquote>Vauxhall (the yellow trapezoid below) had a splendid situation with gentle sloping hills and views of the East River; it’s now the west side of today’s Cooper Square.&nbsp; Lafayette Place (the green line) opened the same year the investors purchased the Bull’s Head. For reference, Washington Square and Fifth Avenue are shown in red.<br /><br />As you can see, following the Bowery (blue line), Daniel Drew’s 200,000 head of cattle stampeding along the Bowery would have been quite a disturbance for the upper crust to endure outside their front doors.&nbsp;&nbsp; The cattle market would relocate to around 26th Street, just east of the future Madison Square and well to the north of the wealthy enclave.<br /><br /><a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TXrEimXrmDI/AAAAAAAABg0/yTyHdcjp41Y/s1600-h/vielemapi2a5.jpg"><img alt="viele-mapi2a" border="0" height="657" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TXrEkAUH-hI/AAAAAAAABg4/66Kgac3faSQ/vielemapi2a_thumb3.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="viele-mapi2a" width="546" /></a> <br /><br />This was the picture for the Bowery Theatre I used for the post <i>The Story Behind the Lower East Side</i>.&nbsp; That was a mistake—this is <i>not</i> what the Bowery looked like when it opened in 1826; and it’s even a poor representation of what it looked like later on.&nbsp; (Sorry to even include it here, but I wanted to set the record straight.)<br /><br /><a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TXrEkzueVTI/AAAAAAAABg8/6329HB3bZWw/s1600-h/OldBoweryTheatreNYC1.jpg"><img alt="OldBoweryTheatre,NYC" border="0" height="608" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TXrElwjpU6I/AAAAAAAABhA/Ysm1-MJiKOM/OldBoweryTheatreNYC_thumb.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="OldBoweryTheatre,NYC" width="495" /></a><br /><br />This was Ithiel Town’s 1826 building, in the Greek Revival Style he was noted for, his first New York commission.&nbsp; The theatre was first named the “New York Theatre,” as the title reads.<br />&nbsp; <br /><a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TXrEmWAx9CI/AAAAAAAABhE/hCs_Uqsnczk/s1600-h/nypl1826i3.jpg"><img alt="nypl 1826i" border="0" height="485" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TXrEm7mTGhI/AAAAAAAABhI/mayh8LWJsWs/nypl1826i_thumb3.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="nypl 1826i" width="552" /></a><br /><br />For a compelling comparison, here is Ithiel Town and Jackson Davis’ still standing Federal Hall National Monument (1833-42) on Wall Street; same architect, same period. The similarities include Doric columns, pediment, and a frieze with triglyphs and metopes. Triglyphs are the three close vertical lines; metopes are the empty square spaces between them. Together they mimic, in marble, the look of wood cross beams, the original building material of the Greeks.&nbsp; This is pure, simple Greek Revival—it looks like a Greek temple.<br />&nbsp; <br /><a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TXrEnMmJ9sI/AAAAAAAABhM/rxBI00ZKPDM/s1600-h/fed3.jpg"><img alt="fed" border="0" height="273" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TXrEnhfTpHI/AAAAAAAABhQ/Wijsnc5SNNg/fed_thumb3.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="fed" width="426" /></a><br /><br />Here it is labeled “The First Bowery Theatre,”&nbsp; though this building would never carry that name.<br /><br /><a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TXrEnxuUgtI/AAAAAAAABhU/4u_G2VPCHic/s1600-h/nypl1872i6.jpg"><img alt="nypl 1872i" border="0" height="476" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TXrEofgaXPI/AAAAAAAABhY/VsnqgKnqGr8/nypl1872i_thumb4.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="nypl 1872i" width="548" /></a> <br /><a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TXrEnMmJ9sI/AAAAAAAABhM/rxBI00ZKPDM/s1600-h/fed3.jpg"></a><br />In fact, over its 103 year life, the theatre would have <i>four</i> different names, and <i>three</i> different looks, changes that often coincided with one of the buildings many fires. The theater would burn in 1828, 1836, 1838, 1845, 1913 and (for a final time) in 1929.&nbsp; Two things might have contributed to the uncanny number of fires: 1. It was the first theatre to have gas-lit lamps, and in fact, for this reason theatre fires in general were not uncommon.&nbsp; But, 2. The Bowery Boys’ headquarters were just next door, and as a gang they had rivals (most famously the Dead Rabbits), and the theatre, with which they had a close association, was solidly on their turf.&nbsp; In 1829 the theatre hosted the first annual Volunteer Fire Department's ball, and the Fire Department was to the Bowery Boys what Tammany Hall was to the Democrats—their informal home.<br /><br />Reconstruction following the fire of 1828 brought a new look and name—now, officially, the Bowery Theatre. This, incidentally, explains the wildly divergent numbers often reported for the theatre’s capacity—from 3,000 to 4,000; the new theatre increased capacity from 3,000 to 3,500.&nbsp; But increased capacity only put more pressure on management to draw crowds, especially the well-heeled for whom the theatre was built. To make sales, management added shows with mass appeal, including melodrama, horse shows and novelty acts.&nbsp; <br /><br />Here was the new look of the 1828, now, Bowery Theatre.&nbsp; Towards the end of the post we’ll see that two of the buildings in this image are still standing! <br /><br /><a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TXrEpG73wtI/AAAAAAAABhc/bAUatjYmLMw/s1600-h/NYPL18261.jpg"><img alt="NYPL 1826" border="0" height="448" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TXrEpkOStkI/AAAAAAAABhg/Ng61COr-4lE/NYPL1826_thumb1.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="NYPL 1826" width="624" /></a> <br /><br />And at one point were the headquarters of the Bowery Boys. <br /><br /><a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TXrEqRX5qmI/AAAAAAAABhk/1Egj0E-f37g/s1600-h/NYPL1826ii6.jpg"><img alt="NYPL 1826ii" border="0" height="415" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TXrErb5PxkI/AAAAAAAABho/F8KBi9RJsFI/NYPL1826ii_thumb4.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="NYPL 1826ii" width="613" /></a> <br /><br />The Bull’s Head tavern was located here, and was a hotel at this time. There are a lot of similarities, and it <i>may</i> be the Bull’s Head tavern re-modeled, but there are discrepancies…<br /><br /><a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TXrEr1MopYI/AAAAAAAABhs/moSWX2cfQjo/s1600-h/NYPL%201826ab%5B1%5D.jpg"><img alt="NYPL 1826ab" border="0" height="410" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TXrEs6l50hI/AAAAAAAABhw/7OsWc6w06sg/NYPL%201826ab_thumb%5B1%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border: 0px none; display: inline;" title="NYPL 1826ab" width="612" /></a> <br /><br />…the next two images <i>are</i> the old Bull’s Head from the NYPL digital collection.&nbsp; The gable roof, fenestration and central doorway match the hotel in the image above, but there are&nbsp;two more dormers and&nbsp;two additional entrances on the later building.&nbsp; Also, the chimneys match, but only in one picture, not both.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; <br /><a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TXrEtTZg1aI/AAAAAAAABh0/l0itmcZ_RBc/s1600-h/Bullsheadtavernnypl24.jpg"><img alt="Bulls head tavern nypl2" border="0" height="332" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TXrEuv7iPCI/AAAAAAAABh4/drUV8V61Fz8/Bullsheadtavernnypl2_thumb2.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="Bulls head tavern nypl2" width="513" /></a> <br /><a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TXrEvoTIGsI/AAAAAAAABh8/FMu-rNIdY28/s1600-h/buulsheadnypla7.jpg"><img alt="buuls head nypla" border="0" height="358" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TXrEwEXCWSI/AAAAAAAABiA/OZmJAxunpv0/buulsheadnypla_thumb5.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="buuls head nypla" width="510" /></a> <br /><a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TXrEwizKHBI/AAAAAAAABiE/CXMx0ybcwsw/s1600-h/nypl%201828i%5B3%5D.jpg"><img alt="nypl 1828i" border="0" height="666" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TXrExFZwv_I/AAAAAAAABiI/4ybSXARjyOI/nypl%201828i_thumb%5B3%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border: 0px none; display: inline;" title="nypl 1828i" width="517" /></a> <br /><br />The Bowery Theatre hosted all the fads and franchises in popular entertainment, good or bad, over the next 50 years: minstrelsy, Mose the fireman, circuses, Buffalo Bill-style Westerns, “variety” shows, and Vaudeville, with nights of Shakespeare sprinkled in—even when the upper classes sought their Shakespeare elsewhere.&nbsp; Later, with each successive immigrant group the theatre would re-format to provide fare for its local audience…German, Yiddish, Italian, and Chinese. <br /><br />And if not the actual birthplace, the Bowery Theatre was an early venue for many theatre forms and stage acts. While on the road out west in the 1830s, Thomas “Daddy” Rice reportedly encountered an elderly stable hand and slave named Jim Crow whose dance, language, and even clothing he mimicked (or, by today’s sensibilities, more likely mocked).&nbsp; His act became a regular at the Bowery Theatre in 1832. “Ethiopian delineators” (white men in blackface) had been part of circus acts and stage shows since the 1820s, but with Rice’s “Jump Jim Crow,” minstrelsy would sweep the nation in the 1840s.&nbsp; And the minstrel show was one of the longest-lived forms of entertainment, from the 1840s until the early 1900s.&nbsp; To&nbsp;put it in&nbsp;perspective, around the year 2030 Rock and Roll will have been around as long as minstrelsy was popular theatre.<br /><br />According to Dunshee, the 1836 fire “totally destroyed” the theatre “in less than thirty minutes.”&nbsp; If so, this was likely its last major facelift. <br /><br /><a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TXrEx8RSEXI/AAAAAAAABiM/038Xtv6UXZg/s1600-h/bowerytheatre1839451.jpg"><img alt="bowerytheatre 1839-45" border="0" height="480" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TXrEyqW1wdI/AAAAAAAABiQ/owtMP10gakA/bowerytheatre183945_thumb.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="bowerytheatre 1839-45" width="495" /></a> <br /><br />The depression of 1837 hit theaters hard, and in 1842 Charles Dickens observed that “there are three principal theatres in New York.&nbsp; Two of them, the Park and the Bowery, are large, elegant, and handsome buildings, and are, I am grieve to write, generally deserted.”&nbsp; James Gordon Bennett Junior’s <i>Herald </i>regularly attacked the theater in these years.&nbsp; In general, characters and acts had become so hackneyed and predictable that audience members often yelled out the next lines.<br /><br />Luc Sante writes in <i>Low Life</i> that during the 1840s “theater managers left off programming their houses as if they were still addressing the mixed and at least partly educated audiences of the 1820s and earlier, and instead began consciously catering to the immigrant mechanics [working class men] who were their actual patrons.”&nbsp; Basically he says, wit and repartee were replaced with elaborate sets and spectacle to appeal to the "common man," a trend that had begun in the 1830s. Now earthquakes, volcanoes and flooding the stage for pirate “aqua-dramas” became standard fare.&nbsp; <br /><br />In 1848 a new character would make his debut that would rock the theater world for the next decade because, simply, so much of the audience recognized itself.&nbsp; Mose the fireman was the typical Bowery B’hoy, and though he did not debut at the Bowery Theatre, the Bowery would host its share of performances where Mose, in his stove pipe hat and soap locks, rescued women and children and saved naive New York tourists from ne’er do wells.&nbsp; Mose was one of our earliest “All-American” avatars.&nbsp; <br /><br /><a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TXrEzCK-API/AAAAAAAABiU/64Xv7FfSwIk/s1600-h/Mose5.jpg"><img alt="Mose" border="0" height="524" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TXrEzuVOozI/AAAAAAAABiY/NKQ_u0WkqHI/Mose_thumb3.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="Mose" width="379" /></a> <br /><br />His likely fans, apparently getting a scolding…<br /><br /><a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TXrE0OZqVGI/AAAAAAAABic/0KB91coySNQ/s1600-h/boweryboys4.jpg"><img alt="boweryboys" border="0" height="283" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TXrE1hC72WI/AAAAAAAABig/1QHrJ6P92N0/boweryboys_thumb2.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="boweryboys" width="381" /></a> <br /><br />Entertainment wasn’t the stratified industry it is today; up until the mid-1800s, rich or poor, bankers, merchants, pimps, and prostitutes, all went to see Shakespeare, and for a long time, in the same theatres.&nbsp; Theatre was the melting pot’s melting pot, and standards for decorum were nonexistent.&nbsp; It would be impossible today to imagine the Metropolitan Opera’s upper balconies overflowing with yelling, hissing rabble rousers bouncing lamb chop bones off the hats of white-gloved ladies, but this was early theatre, before movies, sports, and bowling night.&nbsp; When the Astor Opera House opened up in 1847, around the corner from Astor’s Lafayette Place, it would, with the help of its location and its program, send a warning shot across the bow of society at large: the upper class would have its own theatre.<br /><br />Edwin Forrest had been a fixture at the Bowery Theatre from early on, and history remembers him best as one of the two protagonist-catalysts, along with William Macready, to ignite the Astor Place Riots of May 10-11, 1849, when both actors reprised the role of Macbeth at different theatres across town. The Bowery Theatre <i>wasn't </i>one of them. <br /><br />Forrest was beloved by the Bowery B’hoys and the working class for his “Americanized” interpretation of Shakespearean characters.&nbsp; Macready played his Shakespeare very traditional, and very “British.”&nbsp; Macready was playing the Astor Opera House, and the confusion as to which theatre Forrest was playing may stem from the fact that <i>both </i>the Bowery <i>and</i> the Broadway Theatres (a short-lived venue at 326 Broadway from 1847-1859) had opening nights for Macbeth on May 7, 1849. But according to the Internet Broadway Database, Edwin Forrest was at the <a href="http://www.ibdb.com/production.php?id=13494"><i>Broadway Theatre</i></a> when he fanned the flames of animosity that instigated crowds to surround the Astor Opera House and its elite attendees, ultimately leading to dozens dead and scores wounded. <br /><br />This image appeared in <i>Harper’s Monthly</i> in 1871.&nbsp; In 1853 the Second and Third Avenue Railroads were opened, merging at the Bowery and Chatham Square. The Atlantic Garden, which opened in 1858, is&nbsp;just north of the Bowery Theatre. The massive beer hall was a favorite of the German community that had been settling the area since 1848. <br /><br /><a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TXrE2BkNG2I/AAAAAAAABik/RR8iP5JIsxA/s1600-h/indexi5.jpg"><img alt="indexi" border="0" height="601" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TXrE3BXBvfI/AAAAAAAABio/bZnUEhgzYRg/indexi_thumb3.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="indexi" width="490" /></a> <br /><br />The NYPL Digital Collection doesn’t give a year for this image.&nbsp; The marquee between the center columns could possibly say “Studley,” and J.B. Studley played Buffalo Bill Cody to rave reviews in 1871. The placard behind the lamppost to the left reads in heavy letters, “Macbeth” and “Othello.” You can make out the sign for the “Atlantic Garden” next door.&nbsp; There’s also a man reading the lamppost at the curb, he must have been reading for a while since he’s not blurry.&nbsp;&nbsp; <br /><br /><a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TXrE3rBhNCI/AAAAAAAABis/eN8rcj6TBLA/s1600-h/Old_Bowery_Theatre_Bowery_Ni2.jpg"><img alt="Old_Bowery_Theatre,_Bowery,_Ni" border="0" height="655" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TXrE5GyLgRI/AAAAAAAABiw/9iuq-32TyTg/Old_Bowery_Theatre_Bowery_Ni_thumb2.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="Old_Bowery_Theatre,_Bowery,_Ni" width="667" /></a><br /><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><i>NYPL Digital Collection, Robert N. Dennis</i></span><br /><br />After the Civil War, the Mose franchise had run its course and Westerns and "variety," including minstrelsy, still with over-the-top sets, were the fashion. <br /><br />From the <i>New York Times,</i> September 30, 1874.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; <br /><a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TXrE5898uQI/AAAAAAAABi0/dcs172T1E3Y/s1600-h/http___article.archive.nytimes.com_1874_09_30_82412143.jpg"><img alt="http___article.archive.nytimes.com_1874_09_30_82412143" border="0" height="277" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TXrE6TP0LNI/AAAAAAAABi4/ACW4irlSHmw/http___article.archive.nytimes.com_1874_09_30_82412143_thumb.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border: 0px none; display: inline;" title="http___article.archive.nytimes.com_1874_09_30_82412143" width="533" /></a><a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TXrE7EPiwWI/AAAAAAAABi8/SyG6ru0ZPEo/s1600-h/http___article.archive.nytimes.com_1874_09_30_82412143i.jpg"><img alt="http___article.archive.nytimes.com_1874_09_30_82412143i" border="0" height="839" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TXrE8h7Pc4I/AAAAAAAABjA/gyV0sFdif-Q/http___article.archive.nytimes.com_1874_09_30_82412143i_thumb.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border: 0px none; display: inline;" title="http___article.archive.nytimes.com_1874_09_30_82412143i" width="537" /></a> <br /><br />The theatre would change hands a number of times and was renamed the Thalia in 1879. According to <i>Valentine’s Manual</i>, “German plays and operas were the main attractions until 1888, when Amberg subleased the house to H.R. Jacobs for a year. A company of Hebrew actors gave performances in their own tongue at the Thalia during the season 1889-90.&nbsp; Then it was closed for a year, and during the season 1891-92 it was open for performance in German.”<br /><br />A <i>New York Times</i> article from 1910 recounts the demographic changes to the area and how the Thalia and the Atlantic Garden, now under the same ownership, responded to the new realities.&nbsp;(The article didn't reproduce clearly, so I typed it out.)&nbsp; <br /><br /><b>Atlantic Garden Changes Its Ways: Famous Old Bowery Resort Turned Into a Yiddish Vaudeville Theatre</b><br /><blockquote>Dwellers, of the Bowery paused and rubbed their eyes yesterday when they passed Atlantic Garden, for the front of the famous old resort, which has stood almost unchanged on its site just below Canal Street since before the Civil War, was plastered over with billboards in Yiddish announcing a Hebrew variety programme. </blockquote><blockquote>The old Atlantic Garden that William Kramer established in 1858 is a thing of the past. Kramer died some time ago and his two sons are now in charge. "There is the sentimental side of it, of course," said William Kramer Jr., "but from a business standpoint there was nothing else to do. The German and Irish population that formerly supported us has moved far away from the Bowery, and we must adapt ourselves to the changed conditions." </blockquote><blockquote>The Atlantic Garden is a large hall which extends from 50 Bowery back to Elizabeth Street. In the front is a barroom and in the rear a concert hall with stage where vaudeville performances went on while patrons ate and drank at the tables. In 1858, when it was first opened, it was the centre of what was the popular section for the better class of Germans. To the east was the district where the Irish centered.&nbsp; &nbsp; </blockquote><blockquote>The new resort became very popular and it was customary, particularly among the Germans, to take their families there in the evening and enjoy the music, which was a special feature, and the "variety"--which was at that time a conspicuous novelty. It was the only place of its kind and gradually became famous. Owing to its proximity to the theatres of that time it was not without its patronage by well-known people, for the Bowery was not then so far removed from the centre of things. &nbsp; </blockquote><blockquote>Mr. Kramer took advantage of the new form of entertainment, at that time known as "variety," and the forerunner of the present vaudeville craze.&nbsp; One of the specialties was "teams" of negro performers. At the time negroes were none too plentiful in New York, and their appearance was looked on as something of a novelty.&nbsp; In 1884 Charles Eschert came to the Atlantic as musical director and brought with him the first "ladies' orchestra."&nbsp; He has been the leader there ever since, and the "ladies' orchestra" has been kept up. &nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp; </blockquote><blockquote>&nbsp;In 1879 Mr. Kramer changed the Thalia [Bowery] theatre, which he had come into control of several years previously, into a Yiddish playhouse.&nbsp; It was the general opinion along the Bowery that he was foolhardy since there did not seem to them to be enough possible patronage for a theatre of that kind there. The Thalia adjoins Atlantic Garden. But the latter, after the heyday of its fame had passed, began to find itself deserted as its patrons moved away. </blockquote><blockquote>Of late years the proprietors have made concessions to the march of events by adding moving pictures to their programme; but this was not enough to stem the tide, and William Kramer Jr. and his brother Albert decided recently that the day of the Atlantic Garden, under this old policy, had passed. </blockquote>Here's the street in <span class="Apple-style-span" style="text-decoration: line-through;">1887</span>1867, now the Thalia with the Atlantic Garden next door. Whether German, Irish, German-Irish, German-Jew, Eastern European-Jew, or in English or Yiddish, the five enormous American flags flying out front must have made whomever was in attendance feel distinctly American. <br /><br /><a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TXrFByKeoEI/AAAAAAAABjk/7A7zgh-xkzs/s1600-h/ThaliaBowery_Theatre_1887%5B1%5D.jpg"><img alt="Thalia Bowery_Theatre,_1887" border="0" height="479" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TXrFCfsi4fI/AAAAAAAABjo/G38uwsqg5CM/ThaliaBowery_Theatre_1887_thumb.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="Thalia Bowery_Theatre,_1887" width="542" /></a><br /><br />Exterior of the Atlantic Garden beer hall (1870s?)…<br /><br /><a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TXrFC2w4RSI/AAAAAAAABjs/967h7qIH1WU/s1600-h/Atlantic_Garden_New_York_from_Robert%5B1%5D.jpg"><img alt="Atlantic_Garden,_New_York,_from_Robert_N2" border="0" height="507" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TXrFDlO4hpI/AAAAAAAABjw/kCt5UgOKVXQ/Atlantic_Garden_New_York_from_Robert%5B2%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="Atlantic_Garden,_New_York,_from_Robert_N2" width="539" /></a> <br /><br />Interior, 1871…<br /><br /><a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TXrFEqI0asI/AAAAAAAABj0/6IbKJF0VK0k/s1600-h/Atlantic%201871i.jpg"><img alt="Atlantic 1871i" border="0" height="447" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TXrFFodKVlI/AAAAAAAABj4/AaBU-_Rcrfo/Atlantic%201871i_thumb.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border: 0px none; display: inline;" title="Atlantic 1871i" width="679" /></a> <br /><br />Here it is "about 1880," from <i>Valentine’s Manual</i>.<br />&nbsp; <br /><a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TXrFGtZpKFI/AAAAAAAABj8/otfEZo3keIk/s1600-h/Valentine%27s%201880i%5B4%5D.jpg"><img alt="Valentine's 1880i" border="0" height="464" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TXrFHbiJeCI/AAAAAAAABkA/ZnULBRh3L1U/Valentine%27s%201880i_thumb%5B2%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border: 0px none; display: inline;" title="Valentine's 1880i" width="645" /></a> <br /><br />Probably the sorriest “then and now” picture I will ever post, here is the site of the Bull’s Head tavern and the Atlantic Garden today…astoundingly sad.&nbsp; <br /><br /><a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TXrFIDPIzKI/AAAAAAAABkE/LpIE9Xgyze0/s1600-h/atltoday4.jpg"><img alt="atl today" border="0" height="467" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TXrFIklu7bI/AAAAAAAABkI/Q_r2wZg9kUM/atltoday_thumb2.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="atl today" width="548" /></a> <br /><br />That much was sacrificed in the name of modernization is clear from the image below.&nbsp; Entire lives were lived knowing only this mode of overhead in-your-face transportation—from about 1880 until the 1940s when the last elevated tracks came down. The Chatham Square hub, says Lawrence Stelter in <i>By the El</i>, was "the junction of the 2nd and 3rd Avenue lines, [and] until 1942 the station had eight active tracks, four platforms and two levels.” From atop the el only the upper portion of the theatre is visible. Notice there are at least <i>eight </i>Federal-era, dormer windows still standing! I'm not sure the year of this image, but it must be earlier than 1910 as the Atlantic Garden is not yet Yiddish.<br /><br /><a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TXrFJHGKkqI/AAAAAAAABkM/BnR3VoqV70A/s1600-h/Thalia_Theatre24.jpg"><img alt="Thalia_Theatre2" border="0" height="404" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TXrFJmpG-BI/AAAAAAAABkQ/mWTnTeaF_yY/Thalia_Theatre2_thumb2.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="Thalia_Theatre2" width="534" /></a>&nbsp;<i><span style="font-size: xx-small;">J. Clarence Davis Collection, Museum of the City of New York</span></i><br /><br />The Internet Broadway Database gives an terse&nbsp;summation of the theatre’s history,&nbsp;and details its final years…<br /><blockquote>Built as the New York, audiences stayed away, perhaps due to its proximity to the dangerous Five Points area. Renamed the Bowery, it flourished even as the neighborhood became a slum. Presented varied popular fare through the years, including spectacle, variety, melodrama, Italian vaudeville (c. 1915), and Chinese theatre (1920s). Burned down (and rebuilt) five times: 1828, 1836, 1838, 1845, and 1923--until a June 5, 1929 fire closed the theatre for good [as Fay’s Bowery Theatre].</blockquote>Here it is towards the very end, about 1928 (the NY County Courthouse went up in 1927--the lighter colored building in the back, and&nbsp;a fire in 1929 would be the end of the theatre). Notice so many of the dormer windows have already disappeared since the last picture! The next image zooms in… <br /><br /><a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TXrFKffCd9I/AAAAAAAABkU/ETYxFRkGMNM/s1600-h/Thalia5.jpg"><img alt="Thalia" border="0" height="426" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TXrFK2pjkDI/AAAAAAAABkY/HrIXYhth5ds/Thalia_thumb3.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="Thalia" width="536" /></a> <br /><br />By 1928 the Atlantic Garden had become a photo studio, and notice there are&nbsp;only two dormer windows left.<br /><br /><a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TXrFLkXHqTI/AAAAAAAABkc/uZ6cPOCwKgE/s1600-h/Thaliai6.jpg"><img alt="Thaliai" border="0" height="367" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TXrFMS5mtmI/AAAAAAAABkg/QQim06zoeww/Thaliai_thumb4.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="Thaliai" width="544" /></a> <br /><br />Here is the same stretch of road today…If you eat a Jing Fong, the entrance is on Elizabeth Street and you have to take an escalator up a few flights. But sitting in Jing Fong, you’re&nbsp;in the space&nbsp;of the upper tiers of the old Bowery Theatre. <br /><br /><a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TXrFM5IWDZI/AAAAAAAABkk/9fZ4yaJ6zgs/s1600-h/IMG_2443i5.jpg"><img alt="IMG_2443i" border="0" height="451" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TXrFNTFRv6I/AAAAAAAABko/owM9JxcsY_Q/IMG_2443i_thumb3.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="IMG_2443i" width="533" /></a><br /><br />&nbsp;And 150 years ago this is what you would have seen...<br /><br /><a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TXrFN5-nDKI/AAAAAAAABks/cWTnUgM7dNw/s1600-h/BOweryTheater.jpg"><img alt="BOwery Theater" border="0" height="447" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TXrFOuLan9I/AAAAAAAABkw/D76KVEc3vlI/BOweryTheater_thumb.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="BOwery Theater" width="554" /></a><br /><br />...if you're sitting here today.&nbsp;This would have been in the air above the actors' heads looking out over the audience (Jing Fong is on the third floor). <br /><br /><a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TXrFPfqU-wI/AAAAAAAABk0/ldSbv9bLQtY/s1600-h/3jingfongLaurenKlainCarton%5B1%5D.jpg"><img alt="3jingfong Lauren Klain Carton" border="0" height="376" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TXrFQOtZ2NI/AAAAAAAABk4/6T0YaMmrffo/3jingfongLaurenKlainCarton_thumb.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="3jingfong Lauren Klain Carton" width="545" /></a>&nbsp;<i><span style="font-size: xx-small;">Photo by Lauren Klein Carton</span></i><br /><br />And the two dormer-window buildings to the far left, 40-42 Bowery, were once the headquarters of the Bowery Boys. Bowery historian Eric Ferrara says a “fierce surprise raid by the Dead Rabbits on this location on July 4, 1857, sparked the infamous, bloody, two-day-long Police Riots.” <br /><br /><br /><a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TXrFQpXw9UI/AAAAAAAABk8/YYfoM5ILsQw/s1600-h/IMG_2342i5.jpg"><img alt="IMG_2342i" border="0" height="635" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TXrFRpGLchI/AAAAAAAABlA/tWNSMubIQBQ/IMG_2342i_thumb3.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="IMG_2342i" width="552" /></a> <br /><a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TXrFR0pjRsI/AAAAAAAABlE/FTwXe93pdok/s1600-h/Thalia21.jpg"><img alt="Thalia2" border="0" height="532" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TXrFSQ96myI/AAAAAAAABlI/43xj5Cj7W5s/Thalia2_thumb.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="Thalia2" width="549" /></a> <br /><br />And these are the same buildings&nbsp;from the&nbsp;earlier image.<br /><a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TXrEqRX5qmI/AAAAAAAABhk/1Egj0E-f37g/s1600-h/NYPL1826ii6.jpg"><br /><img alt="NYPL 1826ii" border="0" height="415" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TXrErb5PxkI/AAAAAAAABho/F8KBi9RJsFI/NYPL1826ii_thumb4.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="NYPL 1826ii" width="613" /></a> <br /><br />The Bowery Boy’s headquarters next to the Bowery Theatre…today a beauty salon next to dim sum.<br />&nbsp; <br /><a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TXrFTP4_j7I/AAAAAAAABlM/tzfU8AR6In8/s1600-h/IMG_23442.jpg"><img alt="IMG_2344" border="0" height="421" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TXrFTxoM5lI/AAAAAAAABlQ/XuUzescswk0/IMG_2344_thumb1.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="IMG_2344" width="547" /></a><br /><br />There’s actually an even <i>older </i>building in the image that’s still standing, the Edward Mooney house from 1789!&nbsp; It’s over to the left with the slanted roof at the entrance to Pell Street, and Old Chinatown…<br /><br /><a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TXrFUk-L8II/AAAAAAAABlU/9yBvX73DYlM/s1600-h/Thaliamooney3%5B1%5D.jpg"><img alt="Thalia mooney 3" border="0" height="437" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TXrFVWFAnBI/AAAAAAAABlY/prTeVVUdDQ0/Thaliamooney3_thumb.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="Thalia mooney 3" width="552" /></a> <br /><br />Even its younger neighbors are all still standing…see the sloped roof of the Mooney house?<br /><br /><a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TXrFV3GZQgI/AAAAAAAABlc/mW4-ej_W9zI/s1600-h/ThaliaMooney1.jpg"><img alt="Thalia Mooney" border="0" height="481" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TXrFWfYX-RI/AAAAAAAABlg/SAyLLqRzXnE/ThaliaMooney_thumb1.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="Thalia Mooney" width="548" /></a> <br /><a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TXrFW8ks8bI/AAAAAAAABlk/QOWQfXbVR8Q/s1600-h/IMG_2341%5B1%5D.jpg"><img alt="IMG_2341" border="0" height="416" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TXrFXddTDuI/AAAAAAAABlo/2xgvl_dqhC8/IMG_2341_thumb%5B1%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border: 0px none; display: inline;" title="IMG_2341" width="541" /></a> <br /><br />The Mooney house was from a time wealthy and poor lived nearby, and business was transacted if not in your house, near to where you lived. It makes sense that Mooney was a wholesaler in the meat market. Surely he would have done business at the Bull's Head tavern--they were contemporary structures, overlapping some 35 years! He picked up the property at the auction of the Delancey estate after the Revolution. According to the <i>explorechinatown.com</i>, “it became a tavern in the 1820's, a store and hotel in the early 20th century, then a pool parlor, a restaurant and a Chinese club, and today is a bank.” Here was his nearby neighbor...<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-oUYLC5j6j9c/TXtkwHyEqXI/AAAAAAAABm4/HrTmHx9qz20/s1600/Bull%2527s%2BHead%2Btavern.jpg" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" height="348" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-oUYLC5j6j9c/TXtkwHyEqXI/AAAAAAAABm4/HrTmHx9qz20/s640/Bull%2527s%2BHead%2Btavern.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/ManhattanUnlocked/~4/B5kVCJm4TIw" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>Robert Amellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06084801755976271616noreply@blogger.com18http://manhattanunlocked.blogspot.com/2011/03/in-and-around-bowery-theatre.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2681192941667483351.post-70314801956383826442011-03-06T01:44:00.006-05:002011-03-13T18:20:50.464-04:00Pawn Stars, Carlo Gambino & SGS AssociatesJust a quick, fun post.&nbsp; I was watching <i>Pawn Stars</i> and a guy walked in with a canceled check signed by Carlo Gambino from 1962.&nbsp; It was from S.G.S. Associates, and you could see the address on the check: 141 East 44th Street.&nbsp; So I Google Earthed it…The Fitzpatrick Grand Hotel.&nbsp; I originally thought the flag out front was Italian--my bad,&nbsp; it's the Irish flag.&nbsp; Still, they're close (orange instead of a red stripe).<br /><br /><a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TXMtS0N3mhI/AAAAAAAABfQ/cxy1QeGd0m0/s1600-h/141%20East%2044th%20Street%5B4%5D.jpg"><img alt="141 East 44th Street" border="0" height="454" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TXMtTherFSI/AAAAAAAABfU/DgaO4OMGSUE/141%20East%2044th%20Street_thumb%5B2%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; border-right: 0px; border-top: 0px; display: inline;" title="141 East 44th Street" width="533" /></a><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/ManhattanUnlocked/~4/y0zO5Ed8_9s" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>Robert Amellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06084801755976271616noreply@blogger.com7http://manhattanunlocked.blogspot.com/2011/03/pawn-stars-carlo-gambino-sgs-associates.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2681192941667483351.post-27005898912321209372011-03-04T01:37:00.019-05:002011-03-13T18:23:22.052-04:00The Bowery & Chatham Square, Then and NowWhile preparing Part II of&nbsp; <a href="http://manhattanunlocked.blogspot.com/2011/03/story-behind-lower-east-side.html"><i>The Story Behind the Lower East Side</i></a><i>,</i> I came across some old photographs of Chatham Square and couldn't resist checking out their locales…hence this post.<br /><br />Here’s a photograph from Kenneth Dunshee’s <i>As You Pass By</i>. This is reportedly a funeral procession heading up the Bowery through Chatham Square in 1869.&nbsp; Doyers Street would be in front of the tall building with the arched windows. Unbelievably, <i>two</i> of<i>&nbsp;</i>these buildings are recognizable today!<br /><br /><br /><a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TXCDCIhVHAI/AAAAAAAABdE/RPkGrjlV5sI/s1600-h/Chatham%20Square%5B6%5D.jpg"><img alt="Chatham Square" border="0" height="525" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TXCDC8yA9eI/AAAAAAAABdI/UQ6XwIH57iE/Chatham%20Square_thumb%5B4%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; border-right: 0px; border-top: 0px; display: inline;" title="Chatham Square" width="539" /></a> <br /><br />Can you see them?…<br /><br /><a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TXCDDq2GTZI/AAAAAAAABdM/nQdLYVUhpvA/s1600-h/IMG_2470%5B4%5D.jpg"><img alt="IMG_2470" border="0" height="410" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TXCDEFS1I7I/AAAAAAAABdQ/y-3jhz4Rpkg/IMG_2470_thumb%5B2%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; border-right: 0px; border-top: 0px; display: inline;" title="IMG_2470" width="539" /></a> <br /><br />The windows have lost their pediments, and the facade has gotten a 1970s-style brick makeover, but the dimensions and arrangement of the windows leave no doubt that this is the same building.<br /><br /><br /><a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TXCDEsxngxI/AAAAAAAABdU/7VhY2Z4_7qc/s1600-h/Chatham%20Squarei%5B8%5D.jpg"><img align="left" alt="Chatham Squarei" border="0" height="400" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TXCDE7S9JlI/AAAAAAAABdY/bl-JKjD5ET4/Chatham%20Squarei_thumb%5B6%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; border-right: 0px; border-top: 0px; display: inline; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px;" title="Chatham Squarei" width="202" /></a> <br /><a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TXCDFQyjSLI/AAAAAAAABdc/IlIHd9bTFvU/s1600-h/IMG_2456i%5B12%5D.jpg"><img alt="IMG_2456i" border="0" height="471" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TXCDF7ZnN6I/AAAAAAAABdg/Khe18fmpwoc/IMG_2456i_thumb%5B10%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; border-right: 0px; border-top: 0px; display: inline;" title="IMG_2456i" width="280" /></a> <br /><a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TXCDGgEsSZI/AAAAAAAABdk/XA_mJR5yjao/s1600-h/IMG_2457%5B4%5D.jpg"><img alt="IMG_2457" border="0" height="391" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TXCDHAUYw2I/AAAAAAAABdo/VAT9KJxaqW0/IMG_2457_thumb%5B2%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; border-right: 0px; border-top: 0px; display: inline;" title="IMG_2457" width="515" /></a> <br /><br />This building has a distinct 3-angled facade, “curving” to accommodate Doyers Street.&nbsp; <br /><br /><a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TXCDHwidqUI/AAAAAAAABds/GxbZ8dsffTg/s1600-h/Chatham%20Squareii%5B12%5D.jpg"><img alt="Chatham Squareii" border="0" height="550" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TXCDISKOiwI/AAAAAAAABdw/DUDHPwu6q4k/Chatham%20Squareii_thumb%5B10%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; border-right: 0px; border-top: 0px; display: block; float: none; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" title="Chatham Squareii" width="549" /></a><br /><br />It has the same number of windows (three) across the middle section, and though the windows have lost their arches the corbelled cornice is still evident on the Bowery side.&nbsp; The next picture shows it more clearly… <br /><br /><a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TXCDJA7mq3I/AAAAAAAABd0/FuS53WzpV4w/s1600-h/IMG_2470i%5B6%5D.jpg"><img alt="IMG_2470i" border="0" height="592" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TXCDJ5VYvFI/AAAAAAAABd4/aJaYlOpwpa8/IMG_2470i_thumb%5B4%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; border-right: 0px; border-top: 0px; display: inline;" title="IMG_2470i" width="537" /></a> <br /><a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TXCDKQOKMPI/AAAAAAAABd8/F1B9S3lqmtQ/s1600-h/Chatham%20Square2%5B4%5D.jpg"><img alt="Chatham Square2" border="0" height="306" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TXCDK8xErmI/AAAAAAAABeA/rDaWRfIPn18/Chatham%20Square2_thumb%5B2%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; border-right: 0px; border-top: 0px; display: inline;" title="Chatham Square2" width="503" /></a><br /><br />Different angle, same cornice detail… <br /><br /><a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TXCDLSjUerI/AAAAAAAABeE/HvUIxW4vo9Y/s1600-h/IMG_2460i%5B4%5D.jpg"><img alt="IMG_2460i" border="0" height="331" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TXCDLzmfhVI/AAAAAAAABeI/UOX_txsIC5M/IMG_2460i_thumb%5B2%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; border-right: 0px; border-top: 0px; display: inline;" title="IMG_2460i" width="507" /></a> <br /><br />I couldn’t get the elevation of the photographer, but the next picture shows the street level today. <br /><br /><a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TXCDCIhVHAI/AAAAAAAABeM/YqCTzsSGvyk/s1600-h/Chatham%20Square%5B8%5D.jpg"><img alt="Chatham Square" border="0" height="475" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TXCDC8yA9eI/AAAAAAAABeU/pYxSIAIYag8/Chatham%20Square_thumb%5B6%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; border-right: 0px; border-top: 0px; display: inline;" title="Chatham Square" width="487" /></a> <br /><br /><br /><br /><a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TXCDOVZynEI/AAAAAAAABec/xICc4L-6LyQ/s1600-h/IMG_2454i%5B5%5D.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="IMG_2454i" border="0" height="443" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TXCDOyuk-sI/AAAAAAAABeg/EBLUvWdsDsM/IMG_2454i_thumb%5B3%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; border-right: 0px; border-top: 0px; display: inline;" title="IMG_2454i" width="506" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><i>&nbsp; (added 3/5/2011)</i><br /><br />To give you an idea of the area in 1869, we were four years out from the Civil War, and the Draft Riots of <strike>1865</strike> 1863 probably still loomed large in the city's consciousness (and conscience).&nbsp; The Draft Riots were a nearly week-long "event" that started out as a legitimate protest against the policy of permitting wealthy people to buy their way out of military service that, over the course of days, devolved into vicious gang assaults on African-Americans, wealthy abolitionists, and Republicans.&nbsp; That was in the city at large.<br /><br /><div style="font-family: inherit;">Chatham Square had been developing as a working class entertainment district since the depression of 1837. By 1869, the upper classes had long since moved uptown, and the Bowery Theater, once the entertainment focal point for the genteel enclaves at the Battery, St. John's Park (the entrance to the Holland Tunnel today), and Bond Street, had changed its format to appeal to working class.&nbsp;</div><div style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></div><div style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 10.5pt;">The Bowery was, of course, a famous entertainment district. This entry from&nbsp;Allston T. Brown’s, <i>A History of New York Stage from the First Performance in 1732 to 1901 (v.2),</i> says what was going on at 7 Chatham Square (the building to the left of the first old building above) in 1854.</span>&nbsp;&nbsp;</div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-kMoqO4vJZ8s/TXElVIcwnMI/AAAAAAAABek/NqDATwDr6ME/s1600/7+chatham+square.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="145" src="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-kMoqO4vJZ8s/TXElVIcwnMI/AAAAAAAABek/NqDATwDr6ME/s400/7+chatham+square.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><div style="font-family: inherit;"><i>Gotham</i> has a place like this in mind when it says, <span style="color: #222222; font-size: 10.5pt;">“‘Variety’ shows refused to specialize in any one popular entertainment form but mixed them all.&nbsp; Starting in 1865 Tony Pastor, a former clown and veteran concert saloon entertainer, ran one out of an old Bowery theater.”&nbsp; </span><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 10.5pt;">Tony Pastor would go on to invent vaudeville, a cleaned up, <span style="font-family: inherit;">family-oriented version of the variety show.&nbsp; When&nbsp;you look at that&nbsp;old picture above,&nbsp;you’re&nbsp;looking at vaudeville and its pre-history.</span></span></div><div style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></div><div style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 10.5pt;">Also important to note is that Chinatown was just about to start.&nbsp; Once again, <i>Gotham</i> reports, “In 1872&nbsp;[3 years after the picture] Wo Kee, a former Hong&nbsp;Kong merchant, moved his general goods store from Oliver to Mott [just down Doyers], dropping the first anchor in the area that would soon be known as Chinatown.”&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span></div><div style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 10.5pt;"><br />They're far from beautiful or important buildings today, but it's amazing to see how substantial and good looking they were back then.&nbsp;&nbsp;</span><br /><br /><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 10.5pt;"><i>(added 3/6/2011)&nbsp;</i></span><br /><br /><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 10.5pt;">Shorpy's is a great website and had this great image of the area, circa 1905, when the 2nd and 3rd Avenue elevated trains merged in Chatham Square.&nbsp;&nbsp;</span><br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-e0k6gNsmFGQ/TXJ_UsUw_MI/AAAAAAAABe8/iV5WDTPdclg/s1600/shorpy2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="576" src="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-e0k6gNsmFGQ/TXJ_UsUw_MI/AAAAAAAABe8/iV5WDTPdclg/s640/shorpy2.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br /><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 10.5pt;">&nbsp; </span><br /><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 10.5pt;">The 3-sided facade is beautiful with its arched lintels and its cornice, which now completely wraps around. In 1905 it was the Chinese Tuxedo Restaurant.&nbsp;&nbsp;</span><br /><br /><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 10.5pt;">The other building to the left looks more like it did in 1869 than it does today, though in this picture it's gotten its fire escape.&nbsp; One thing that's new here since 1869 is the building with the mansard roof and the triangular pediment over the windows. It is only an echo of its former self...</span><br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-bVb_oXcO5fU/TXJ_eiE1GHI/AAAAAAAABfA/KMfmS0yqUSM/s1600/shorpy3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="528" src="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-bVb_oXcO5fU/TXJ_eiE1GHI/AAAAAAAABfA/KMfmS0yqUSM/s640/shorpy3.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-AP6XKHbshIs/TXJ_nTfz8RI/AAAAAAAABfE/0YSyOnNG5Qk/s1600/IMG_2469i.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-AP6XKHbshIs/TXJ_nTfz8RI/AAAAAAAABfE/0YSyOnNG5Qk/s640/IMG_2469i.jpg" width="318" /></a></div><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 10.5pt;"><i></i></span></div><br /><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 10.5pt;">&nbsp;&nbsp; </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 10.5pt;"><br /><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-WWHw9fMuNMc/TXtdWe0AfeI/AAAAAAAABmo/c_BGqUKPRQk/s1600/Chatham%2BSquare.jpg" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" height="622" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-WWHw9fMuNMc/TXtdWe0AfeI/AAAAAAAABmo/c_BGqUKPRQk/s640/Chatham%2BSquare.jpg" width="640" /></a></span><br />span&gt;<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/ManhattanUnlocked/~4/GHdHCDm7dSA" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>Robert Amellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06084801755976271616noreply@blogger.com5http://manhattanunlocked.blogspot.com/2011/03/bowery-chatham-square-then-and-now.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2681192941667483351.post-39453374347572746372011-03-02T18:35:00.012-05:002011-03-15T02:07:53.816-04:00The Story Behind the Lower East SideThis look at the Lower East Side will be done over three posts. This first post will use old maps to&nbsp; reconstruct the area from Colonial days, and look at how the Lower East Side developed initially, before the days of New York’s iconic immigration. The next post will go to street level, looking at what’s left of the Federal-Georgian style buildings, row houses, and the evolution of the tenement, all from different bygone eras. The final post will go <i>way back,</i> using old drawings and sketches, and the Viele map, to locate long-gone estates, farms and mansions on the grid today.<br />&nbsp; <br />The Lower East Side has everything that makes a neighborhood maddeningly, quintessentially Manhattan—streets at inexplicable angles, buildings from every period, and borders that, depending on if you’re 25, 55, or 105, shift 5 or 15 blocks.&nbsp; Here, though, is what most can agree is the indisputable core of the Lower East Side.<br /><br /><a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TW6zrOHs_sI/AAAAAAAABYc/rFq9hOW4pcI/s1600-h/GE6015.jpg"><img alt="GE 601" border="0" height="475" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TW6zsE-u3gI/AAAAAAAABYg/VeJqcvnXeC4/GE601_thumb3.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="GE 601" width="556" /></a> <br /><br />Across nearly every running foot of the green line above is a neighborhood that can be persuasively argued to be part of the Lower East Side—Alphabet City, the East Village, Little Italy, “traditional” Chinatown, not to mention ghost neighborhoods like Kleindeutschland and Five Points, among others. The boundaries of the area are: Houston Street to the north, the Bowery to the west, and Chatham Square and Catherine Street to the south (actually, the southern border runs along the Brooklyn Bridge anchorage, across the Al Smith Houses from Catherine Street, Robert F. Wagner Sr. Place—but who knew there was such a street).&nbsp; <br /><br />Just to lay it all on the table, purists will insist that everything in the blue boundary is the Lower East Side.&nbsp; It’s no use arguing with these people. <br /><br /><a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TW6ztLBOhnI/AAAAAAAABYk/5bTNAVHTEMw/s1600-h/GE6024.jpg"><img alt="GE 602" border="0" height="463" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TW6zt3xG6BI/AAAAAAAABYo/KGIzrkOI_Hk/GE602_thumb2.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="GE 602" width="544" /></a> <br /><br />First, let’s look at a century of advancement in transportation and how the Lower East Side has—literally—been pushed off to the side.&nbsp; The Bowery (the green curved line above) was once the main road in and out of town when impassable marshland extended across TriBeCa from Broadway to the Hudson River. (To read more about that, go to: <i><a href="http://manhattanunlocked.blogspot.com/2011/02/truth-about-broadwayand-manhattans.html">The Truth about Broadway—and Manhattan’s Water Border</a></i>).&nbsp; Today, however, it’s far easier to navigate the west side of lower Manhattan than the east side.&nbsp; You’ve probably been to Chelsea, the West Village and TriBeCa far more often than the Lower East Side—here’s why.<br /><br />The next two images are basically the same, showing the main uptown-downtown avenues, the second map labels them.&nbsp; An arrowhead at <i>both</i> ends of a yellow line indicates a <i>two-way</i> street; <i>one </i>arrowhead is a <i>one-way</i> street.&nbsp; Where two arrowheads come face-to-face indicates “no through traffic.” What’s amazing is that the West Village is notorious for its crazy street patterns, and car traffic cuts through easily.&nbsp; It’s a different story on the east side.<br /><br /><a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TW6zu8f9vVI/AAAAAAAABYs/k6n9b0QZwxs/s1600-h/GE51a4.jpg"><img alt="GE 5 1a" border="0" height="492" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TW6zwSA55SI/AAAAAAAABYw/XoV10Mr1IIE/GE51a_thumb2.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="GE 5 1a" width="577" /></a> <br /><br />The west side avenues 6, 7, 8 and 9 feed directly into Church, Varick, Hudson and Greenwich Streets—drivers would actually have to look at the street signs to realize they’re on a different street. On the east side, though, you have to make a half dozen turns to make your way into lower Manhattan (or travel uptown).&nbsp; As well, avenues 11 and 12 feed into the the West Side Highway (which becomes West Street below 14th Street). The FDR Drive is its own road, with three exits in the LES: Houston, Grand, and South Street.&nbsp; <br /><br /><a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TW6zxLE1thI/AAAAAAAABY0/IGVcWSX7etc/s1600-h/GE51ab4.jpg"><img alt="GE 5 1ab" border="0" height="488" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TW6zyHHr5ZI/AAAAAAAABY8/aFvDDvAyaEE/GE51ab_thumb2.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="GE 5 1ab" width="573" /></a> <br /><br />It’s the same for the subways.&nbsp; It looks as if there are plenty of subway lines running through the LES below…<br /><br /><a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TW6zzIo53uI/AAAAAAAABZA/-rpFMteRj_I/s1600-h/zoommidtown96325.jpg"><img alt="zoom-midtown-9632" border="0" height="404" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TW6zz124DOI/AAAAAAAABZE/D7Ob0ynpt1U/zoommidtown9632_thumb3.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="zoom-midtown-9632" width="512" /></a> <br /><br />But most are just passing through. Here are the actual subway <i>stops</i>.&nbsp; <br /><br /><a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TW6z0s7yWLI/AAAAAAAABZI/0rKyddv1A6Y/s1600-h/GEsubways2a4.jpg"><img alt="GE subways2a" border="0" height="450" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TW6z1tL45NI/AAAAAAAABZM/c5yg4TnPggE/GEsubways2a_thumb2.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="GE subways2a" width="528" /></a> <br /><br />Most people know there’s much public housing in the area, but blocks of housing developments actually form a virtual wall around the district (of course, plenty of people live in that “wall”). <br /><br /><a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TW6z2nbRtnI/AAAAAAAABZQ/qlUeH8InohY/s1600-h/GEsubway5aaa4.jpg"><img alt="GE subway 5aaa" border="0" height="492" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TW6z3k8TwzI/AAAAAAAABZU/876_yG3xiYA/GEsubway5aaa_thumb2.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="GE subway 5aaa" width="577" /></a> <br /><br />And lastly, there are the Williamsburg and Manhattan Bridges that have turned so much of the Lower East Side into a landing pad.&nbsp; It’s incredible to think about, but the bridge approaches weren’t even planned until the bridges were near completion.&nbsp; The Williamsburg Bridge opened in 1903, and helped (along with the elevated trains that led up to Harlem) de-populate a severely over-populated Lower East Side, especially for the Orthodox Jews who could walk over the bridge on Sabbath (and Williamsburg has a large Jewish population as a result today).&nbsp; The Manhattan Bridge opened in 1909.&nbsp; <br /><br />The Lower East Side is much more extensive than the 6-8 block cluster of clubs and cafes located within a short walk of the subway stops.&nbsp; A five minute walk from the heart of the district towards the shore leads to a neighborhood that has a completely different look and feel.&nbsp; Between the clubby noir Lower East Side of tenements and the wall of massive apartment buildings along the shore, are a few one-and-two-story high “main street” strips of pharmacies, delis, beauty saloons and locksmiths.&nbsp; It actually feels like outlying areas of Brooklyn and Queens. <br /><br />This disjointed&nbsp; “indisputable core” of the LES is the combination of two fossil farms that can be seen clearly in the street patterns today: the Delancey and Rutgers estates.&nbsp; (Technically, it's just Lancey, since the name is de Lancey, but Lancey alone looks weird). Both estates bordered the Bowery, and each had a main road: Grand Street on the Delancey estate, and Love Lane on the Rutgers estate.&nbsp; <br /><br />Below is the Montresor map of 1766.&nbsp; According to <i>Stokes</i>, there are many inaccuracies on this map<i>,</i> it was done for the British after the Stamp Act Riots of 1765, and in secret, so only certain features were important—like roads, not farms.&nbsp; I’m using it to show Grand Street, which the British called the “Road to Crown Point,” which was what the British called Corlears Hook, the land feature that gives Manhattan its distinctive bulge.&nbsp; That road, which would be named Grand Street a few years later, bisected the Delancey estate and traversed one of the city’s highest hills, Mount Pitt (aka Jones Hill).&nbsp; Another road, Love Lane ran across the northern stretch of the Rutgers farm.&nbsp; The next map zooms in on the area. <br /><br /><a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TW6z4Yo1iUI/AAAAAAAABZY/YL_khtxqtNU/s1600-h/plate40vii5.jpg"><img alt="plate 40, vii" border="0" height="604" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TW6z5bzFrTI/AAAAAAAABZc/2xs_XrWXUzg/plate40vii_thumb3.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="plate 40, vii" width="544" /></a>&nbsp; <i><span style="font-size: xx-small;">Stokes, Vol 1, p. 339</span></i><br /><br />The Road to Crown Point (<b>Grand Street</b>) was the keystone for the Delancey grid; Love Lane (approximating the future <b>East Broadway</b>) would set the pattern of the Rutgers grid.&nbsp; The short road coming off the Bowery at Chatham Square, <b>Division Street,</b> was the boundary agreed to in 1765 (and still exists as a street today).&nbsp; <br /><br /><a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TW6z6HE3DnI/AAAAAAAABZg/sWHTa7KFCMc/s1600-h/plate40vii8887.jpg"><img alt="plate 40, vii888" border="0" height="430" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TW6z63WDq7I/AAAAAAAABZk/QjedprohPqU/plate40vii888_thumb5.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="plate 40, vii888" width="529" /></a> <br /><br />Here are Grand Street and East Broadway today—the two main roads of the 1700s.&nbsp; The three bridges in the image, from bottom to top, are: the Brooklyn, Manhattan and Williamsburg Bridges. <br /><br /><a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TW6z7w6aCfI/AAAAAAAABZo/0kfBavlXjLY/s1600-h/LES5%5B5%5D.jpg"><img alt="LES5" border="0" height="499" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TW6z9RxoVfI/AAAAAAAABZs/VochcGcRetU/LES5_thumb%5B3%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="LES5" width="573" /></a> <br /><br />Let’s look at all <i>three</i> grids, including the city’s main grid.&nbsp; All three have the same working logic: make the best possible use of land to coordinate direct routes from the shore to the main roads.&nbsp; Delancey had extensive frontage on the Bowery, and his “cross streets” come off the curved Bowery at near right angles and lead directly to the shore. Rutgers, however, had extensive <i>shoreline</i> frontage along Cherry Street, and his property just barely touched the Bowery. His streets come up from shore and head to where his property accessed the Bowery.&nbsp;&nbsp; <br /><br />The Commissioner’s Plan of 1811, which begins the main grid of the city at Houston Street (the small wedge at the top), is at a slight tilt to the Delancey grid, but actually uses the same logic.&nbsp; The city’s cross streets connect river-to-river, and each block is wide enough to accommodate two wharves, on either side of a street.&nbsp; Avenues are closer together at the shore than they are in the middle of the island.&nbsp; The city anticipated lots of cross town traffic, and movement of goods inland, from shore, and then up and down wide avenues.&nbsp; <br />&nbsp; <br /><a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TW6z-ROJNyI/AAAAAAAABZw/rf_ZacutjWI/s1600-h/LESiii5.jpg"><img alt="LESiii" border="0" height="493" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TW6z_deSVCI/AAAAAAAABZ0/I8VPKxpYqWs/LESiii_thumb3.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="LESiii" width="565" /></a><br /><br />Here it is without paint.&nbsp; I zoomed out because the grids are so distinctive you can still see them clearly from so far away, and it also gives an appreciation for just how large the area is. <br /><br /><a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TW60ALcbhBI/AAAAAAAABZ4/iHX5Zv3Ck9A/s1600-h/GE514.jpg"><img alt="GE 5 1" border="0" height="428" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TW60A6zb72I/AAAAAAAABZ8/rOqp5BQxI7I/GE51_thumb2.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="GE 5 1" width="502" /></a> <br /><a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TW60BxqHoKI/AAAAAAAABaA/rSDLSLSRKdU/s1600-h/eastwestbway4.jpg"></a><br />The Rutgers and Delanceys weren’t just <i>literally</i> on opposite sides of the fence.&nbsp; During the Revolution, the Delanceys were staunch loyalists, while Henry Rutgers hosted meetings for the Sons of Liberty on his farm.&nbsp; (And in still <i>another</i> great moment in history, the father and grandfather of James de Lancey and Henry Rutgers were on different sides of the seditious-libel trial of Peter Zenger <strike>trial</strike> in 1735.&nbsp; James de Lancey was the royalist judge who heard the case; Harmanus Rutgers sat on the grand jury.)<br /><br />Both families had long histories in New York.&nbsp; Stephen de Lancey came to New York in 1685, after Louis XIV revoked the Edict of Nantes (which had been issued by Henry IV of France in 1598 to give some protections to the Protestants (Huguenots) after thousands had been slaughtered in the Saint Bartholomew’s Day Massacre of 1572. It’s amazing when you can go back so far—to think we have Delancey Street because of medieval religious wars!) <br /><br />Anyway, Huguenots (and Stephen de Lancey was one) no longer felt safe in France and many came here; New Rochelle was a result of this migration.&nbsp; Stephen married into the van Cortlandt family (today’s park namesake), and his home was the original Fraunces Tavern, where Washington gave his historic farewell address to his generals (the building there now is a reproduction, it's faithful to the period architecture, but not the original building).&nbsp; Stephen’s son, Lieutenant Governor James de Lancey, was New York’s Supreme Court Justice under the British.&nbsp; <i>His</i> son, also James, “gridded” and leased out the property on the Lower East Side.&nbsp; Delancey had loose standards and leased out his land to artisans and craftsmen as well as to investors who turned around and sublet.&nbsp; But Delancey would be a Lower East Side landlord for a very short time before the Revolution.&nbsp; After the revolution, he lost his land and the Delancey clan, along with a boatload of other Tories, were re-located by the British to New Brunswick (Canada, not New Jersey; but in another weird coincidence that's where Rutgers <strike>College</strike> University is). According to <i>Stokes</i>, <br /><blockquote>A law passed by the legislature of New York on May 19, 1784, provided for the speedy sale of confiscated and forfeited estates, and under it many sales were effected. The large city estate of James De Lancey, lying in the district bounded by the Bowery, Rivington Street, Division Street, and the East River, was sold, and De Lancey himself was attainted.</blockquote>A mix bag of folks bought up the Delancey properties, but fully half were purchased by New York’s rich established families, and many of the artisans had to move out, unable to afford the higher rents imposed.<br /><br />Harmanus Rutgers (and his brother Anthony, from the previous post referred to above) were descendents of a wealthy brewing family that had come to New Amsterdam in 1636. Originally to Ft. Orange (Albany), they moved to New York in 1690.&nbsp; Harmanus (Henry’s grandfather) purchased 56 acres of Lower East Side land around 1728, and the original farmhouse was just off the Bowery.&nbsp; In 1751 a larger mansion was built farther in on the property, closer to the East River. Harmanus’s son, also named Henry, inherited the LES land in 1753. He was the father of the Revolutionary War Colonel, and namesake of Rutgers University.&nbsp; And while Henry Rutgers (Jr.) was a great philanthropist, when Queen’s College was renamed for him in 1825 the Board of Trustees was probably hoping for a larger bequeath than the $5,000 he left the school when he died in 1830. He had no children and his nephew, William Crosby, inherited the bulk of the estate. <br /><br />Unlike James de Lancey, Rutgers preferred long-term leases and he let his land with “restrictive covenants” that required buildings of more substantial material than what was allowed to be built on the Delancey grounds.&nbsp; In effect, Rutgers exercised his own zoning. <br /><br />From the Rutgers University Libraries:<br /><blockquote>An important method of controlling development was to require compliance with specified conditions. In May 1826, for example, Rutgers leased a lot to the mason Thompson Price. The lease stipulated that Price "build and erect a good substantial and workmanlike brick dwelling house not less than forty feet in depth, and not less than two stories in height, on the front of the said … premises, and so as to cover the whole front; but at no period of the term … shall there be more than one dwelling house." He also required his permission for leaseholders to sell their leases and reserved to himself first option to buy. Thus Rutgers was not only complying with state law regarding use of building materials that guarded against the ever-present danger from fire, he also maintained control over density of development and related quality-of-life issues. Uncontrolled development resulted in situations such as that at Corlears Hook, an impoverished neighborhood where in 1819 one building reportedly housed 103 people.<sup><a href="http://www.libraries.rutgers.edu/rul/libs/scua/university_archives/henry_rutgers.shtml#cite_36"></a></sup></blockquote><br />Rutgers Street, today running north-south mid-way through the grid, was the division between more substantial brick buildings (to the east side), and a mix of wooden and brick structures (to the west side); Cherry Street was the boundary between homes and stores, along the shore.&nbsp; Rutgers attracted a more stately class of tenants, including merchants, professionals, and those related to the shipbuilding industry, in addition to the artisans and craftsmen who sublet from the many owners of the (now former) Delancey properties.&nbsp; <br /><br /><a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TW60C9n47vI/AAAAAAAABaE/Bk0Sn_GOSRo/s1600-h/arutgersia9.jpg"><img alt="arutgersia" border="0" height="409" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TW60D20mzjI/AAAAAAAABaI/vRrVxXl7mxo/arutgersia_thumb5.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="arutgersia" width="578" /></a> <br /><br />Here’s the Ratzen Plan, 1766, before much was built, showing the farmland much more accurately than the Montresor map. The Delancey farm actually had an irregular northern boundary.&nbsp; The next map zoom’s in…<br /><br /><a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TW60FNzW25I/AAAAAAAABaM/XsEMvoWjAD0/s1600-h/plate42v.1i9.jpg"><img alt="plate 42 v. 1i" border="0" height="516" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TW60GTRgsNI/AAAAAAAABaQ/Q5Fk6Dk8HRQ/plate42v.1i_thumb5.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="plate 42 v. 1i" width="731" /></a> <br /><br />The Delancey Streets were already laid out by 1766 with a great central square.&nbsp; The “mansion plot” had previously belonged to freed slaves, Anthony Congo and Bastiaen in 1647,&nbsp; granted to them by Director-General Kieft of the Dutch West India Company (the city leader was as much a CEO as a politician).&nbsp; There will be more about this dastardly Director in the final post.&nbsp; <br /><br />Orchard and Grand Streets retain their names today and originally were interrupted, ending in the middle of the sides of the square.&nbsp; It’s possible there was an orchard in the “Great Square,” but looking at the map it seems more likely that Orchard Street was named for the orchard on the <i>mansion plot,</i> from which the street extends south.&nbsp; Another colonial judge, Thomas Jones, had an estate on the hilltop of Mount Pitt (aka Jones Hill).&nbsp; We’ll look for his house in the third post of this series.&nbsp; You can see Rutgers original house near the Bowery, and the one that was constructed later, closer to Corlears Hook.&nbsp; We’ll also go looking for these in the third post.<br /><br /><a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TW60HsoiXvI/AAAAAAAABaU/eGBkdz_MWEM/s1600-h/plate42v.1ibb4.jpg"><img alt="plate 42 v. 1ibb" border="0" height="438" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TW60I2rIdoI/AAAAAAAABaY/3mRw7XjZKaI/plate42v.1ibb_thumb2.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="plate 42 v. 1ibb" width="568" /></a> <br /><br />From Lamb’s <i>History of the City New York</i>, showing the Delancey estate at the time of the Revolution.&nbsp; The northern boundary of the property did not neatly follow a future street.&nbsp; What’s most ironic is the open space.&nbsp; The Great Square (or Delancey’s Square on this map) is about the most tenement-congested four-square-block area on the Lower East Side today, and is now surrounded by much open space and parks where tenements have been torn down. <br /><br /><a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TW60JutR3tI/AAAAAAAABac/Lmyw_HsPlF8/s1600-h/historyofcityofn01lambm_0664ii1.jpg"><img alt="historyofcityofn01lambm_0664ii" border="0" height="568" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TW60LHHAQaI/AAAAAAAABag/YRApHSwrss8/historyofcityofn01lambm_0664ii_thumb.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="historyofcityofn01lambm_0664ii" width="707" /></a> <br /><br /><br /><a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TW60MO_pONI/AAAAAAAABak/2y-EgsZ0g-o/s1600-h/historyofcityofn01lambm_066411.jpg"><img alt="historyofcityofn01lambm_06641" border="0" height="445" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TW60M6qO4PI/AAAAAAAABao/WU-PySEI5So/historyofcityofn01lambm_06641_thumb.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="historyofcityofn01lambm_06641" width="683" /></a><br />The first map below shows the north-south streets (and they’re pretty close to the compass orientation).&nbsp; In blue, Delancey’s original names for the streets are shown first (when applicable), some retained their original names.&nbsp; Two roads (Allen and Ludlow) were added later, shown in black, and crossed through the square on either side of Orchard Street. <br /><br /><a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TW60N2ELULI/AAAAAAAABas/E4IGdfbBBeU/s1600-h/history60014.jpg"><img alt="history 6001" border="0" height="452" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TW60OoewqSI/AAAAAAAABaw/rTD4j3YIIKg/history6001_thumb2.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="history 6001" width="611" /></a> <br /><br />A nifty way to remember the streets is to use the actual square, and history itself!&nbsp; First, visualize the square and remember that Grand and Orchard Street cross in the middle. Between the Bowery and the western edge of the square Delancey laid out three streets: First, Second and Third.&nbsp; In 1817 they were re-named for heroes from the War of 1812:&nbsp; Chrystie, Forsythe and Eldridge, in that order.&nbsp; To remember the order, think “CaFE.”&nbsp; (It is the Lower East Side after all.) The streets on the <i>opposite </i>side of the square retain their original names: Essex, Norfolk and Suffolk—all English counties, and in alphabetical order.&nbsp; The two roads that were later laid out on either side of Orchard Street, Allen and Ludlow (also war of 1812 heroes), both have two Ls in their names—they came <b><span style="font-size: small;">L</span></b>ater.&nbsp; There are many more streets after Suffolk, in fact Arundel (another English county), was renamed Clinton. But if you’re going out on the Lower East Side, you’re likely going to one of those streets. <br /><br />I don’t have a trick for remembering the east-west streets.&nbsp; The lower square’s road was originally named Eagle Street, and changed to Hester, the daughter of Jacob Leisler of Leisler Rebellion fame.&nbsp; Below Hester was Pump Street, eventually linked to and renamed Canal; and below that was Fischers Street, renamed Bayard.&nbsp; The top of the square was Bullock, renamed Broome Street (the first alderman after the British evacuation), followed by Delancey, Rivington (a publisher of a pro-British paper during the Revolution but secretly spying for George Washington), and Stanton (a foreman on the Delancey estate).&nbsp; There’s nothing consistent with the names of these streets to remember them, though they are in alphabetical order above Broome.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; <br /><br /><a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TW60PYKsJ8I/AAAAAAAABa0/6LVi_DegMnU/s1600-h/hisory6002i4.jpg"><img alt="hisory 6002i" border="0" height="450" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TW60QRDd6xI/AAAAAAAABa4/9DhwSPuq9t4/hisory6002i_thumb2.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="hisory 6002i" width="639" /></a> <br /><br />A very cool map from a great old book, <i>A Tour Around New York</i>, by Felix Oldboy of the area in 1782, <i>during</i> the Revolution, when the British had been occupying New York for six years!&nbsp; Delancey Square has gotten quite a work over and is now a defensive wall along the high ground of Grand Street. But General Charles Lee, a soon-to-be American, had spent months preparing New York’s defenses against the British before George Washington arrived so much of the wall may have already been in place by the time the British took control of New York.&nbsp; <br /><br /><a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TW60RS12OJI/AAAAAAAABa8/hgew3WhHF5k/s1600-h/touraroundnewyor00mine_005925.jpg"><img alt="touraroundnewyor00mine_00592" border="0" height="460" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TW60SnKulHI/AAAAAAAABbA/a-s65NZS1XM/touraroundnewyor00mine_00592_thumb3.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="touraroundnewyor00mine_00592" width="694" /></a><br /><br /><a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TW60TijC9lI/AAAAAAAABbE/hEQpNDl4Idc/s1600-h/touraroundnewyor00mine_0059ii1.jpg"><img alt="touraroundnewyor00mine_0059ii" border="0" height="508" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TW60Urpjv4I/AAAAAAAABbI/5zPzxRpuJXg/touraroundnewyor00mine_0059ii_thumb.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="touraroundnewyor00mine_0059ii" width="717" /></a><br /><br />We'll see the map again in another post but it's so cool I thought I'd show it here. <br /><br />The 1820s were the apex for the social elite on the Lower East Side. We’d fought the “second Revolution” in the War of 1812, and with the opening of the Erie Canal in 1825, New York was on a road from which it would never look back.&nbsp; Beloved George Washington had passed away in 1799, but the Marquis de La Fayette, who helped win the Revolution and was nearly as much beloved as Wasington, returned to New York City in 1824 to one of the grandest receptions the city’s ever known.&nbsp; He was feted at Colonel Rutgers’ mansion when this part of town, along with the Battery and Bond Street, was among the most genteel of high society. The Mount Pitt Circus operated at Grand Street and East Broadway from 1826-1829. Corlears Hook, nonetheless, remained a raunchy, overpopulated red light area. Unlike today, back then you could almost throw a rock from where the wealthiest and poorest people lived.&nbsp; <br /><br />The commercial center was still in lower Manhattan on Pearl Street, and the movement of progress was initially <i>not</i> up Broadway, but up the Bowery. Brooks Brothers opened at the corner of Cherry and Catherine Streets in 1818…<br /><br /><a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TW60VDGxdeI/AAAAAAAABbM/4XtHmnD0Tgo/s1600-h/bb18184.jpg"><img alt="bb 1818" border="0" height="361" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TW60VoVegzI/AAAAAAAABbQ/FShKz72-Gjg/bb1818_thumb2.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="bb 1818" width="502" /></a> <br /><br />And in 1826 Lord and Taylor opened their first store at 47 Catherine Street.&nbsp; The picture below was obviously taken long after that; Lord and Taylor continued to occupy their buildings even after opening additional branches uptown, and they stayed at this location until 1866.&nbsp; The signs out front say “selling off.”&nbsp; The “department store” didn’t exist in the early 1800s, and they were “dry goods” stores, or sometimes called a “store and loft.” Brooks Brothers was probably a combination dry-goods store and tailor.<br /><br /><a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TW60WOm1AKI/AAAAAAAABbU/AgYjgzn3NmQ/s1600-h/Lordtaylor18268.jpg"><img alt="Lord &amp; taylor 1826" border="0" height="543" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TW60W28MRzI/AAAAAAAABbY/FicXUdaQ3J0/Lordtaylor1826_thumb6.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="Lord &amp; taylor 1826" width="483" /></a> <br /><br />Here’s what <i>Valentine’s Manual of Old New York, 1921</i> says about Lord and Taylor and Catherine Street, circa 1820s… <br /><br /><a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TW60XUFQJAI/AAAAAAAABbc/1trGrc7ujAg/s1600-h/p.98%5B6%5D.jpg"><img alt="p.98" border="0" height="561" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TW60Y1Z4XcI/AAAAAAAABbg/1HWep2OCVBQ/p.98_thumb%5B4%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="p.98" width="503" /></a>&nbsp;<a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TW60Zk5y-rI/AAAAAAAABbk/NYnS0WLtrpI/s1600-h/p.%2099%5B5%5D.jpg"><img alt="p. 99" border="0" height="291" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TW60aBQG8qI/AAAAAAAABbo/5x-FJddvU64/p.%2099_thumb%5B3%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="p. 99" width="504" /></a> <br /><br />Further development would take place in the vicinity of the Bowery, a part of town on the upswing. In 1825, the Bull’s Head Tavern, located where the Manhattan Bridge meets Canal Street today (and a 5-minute walk from the Catherine Street location above) was still part of the cattle market whose tanners and butchers had so polluted the Collect Pond since the 1700s, now filled in for about 10 years. Now the area was changing. Of the Bull’s Head Tavern,<i> Gotham</i> says,<br /><blockquote>Some of [their] customers, bolstered by gentry families filtering in from the lower wards, wanted to transform the Bowery into a more genteel neighborhood.&nbsp; taking aim at the stink, the endless whinnying, lowing and grunting, and the occasional steer running amok and goring passers-by, they set about driving the Bull’s Head from the area. In the mid-1820s, an association of socially prominent businessmen bought out Henry Astor [John Jacob’s brother] and dismantled his enterprise….[I]n place of the old tavern, the consortium set about erecting Ithiel Town’s splendid Greek Revival playhouse—the New York (soon to be Bowery) Theater. </blockquote><a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TW60a9Aw8oI/AAAAAAAABbs/AG42elohZvA/s1600-h/OldBoweryTheatreNYC5.jpg"><img alt="OldBoweryTheatre,NYC" border="0" height="575" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TW60bslw72I/AAAAAAAABbw/O_ePPeOcRHo/OldBoweryTheatreNYC_thumb3.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="OldBoweryTheatre,NYC" width="467" /></a> <br /><br />(added 3/6/2011)<br />The above image was a later version of the Bowery Theater.&nbsp; Ithiel Town's Bowery Theater, originally called the New York Theater, looked like this...<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-2TuIBFBMRyg/TXRnKOvt9aI/AAAAAAAABf4/cCE1C9xS4t0/s1600/nypl+1826i.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="555" src="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-2TuIBFBMRyg/TXRnKOvt9aI/AAAAAAAABf4/cCE1C9xS4t0/s640/nypl+1826i.jpeg" width="640" /></a></div><br />Here are those locations today: (1) Brooks Brothers, 1818; (2) Lord &amp; Taylor, 1826; (3) the Bowery Theater, 1826; and (4) Rutgers’ mansion where he received Lafayette in 1824.&nbsp; <br /><br /><a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TW60chRu2MI/AAAAAAAABb0/6A0u9bLewqk/s1600-h/4044.jpg"><img alt="404" border="0" height="408" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TW60dWT0JQI/AAAAAAAABb4/Nyi72lXFTVU/404_thumb2.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="404" width="479" /></a> <br /><br />Below are West Broadway, Broadway, and East Broadway.&nbsp; West Broadway was named in 1899, and a popular explanation for its name was to trick people into using an alternate route other than the very congested Broadway.&nbsp; The same logic is often used to describe the origin of East Broadway.&nbsp; But East Broadway was named in 1831, and besides the fact there is <i>no way</i> that that route could have served as an alternate to Broadway, in the early 1800s <i>it was an</i> east <i>Broadway,</i> which then barely extended past today’s City Hall.&nbsp;&nbsp; Throughout most of the 1800s, both streets were popular commercial centers.&nbsp; Along with Grand Street they were, in fact, the original “Ladies Mile,” the name of the historic shopping district stretching from 14th to 23rd Streets, between Fifth and 6th Avenues.&nbsp; <br /><br /><a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TW60BxqHoKI/AAAAAAAABaA/rSDLSLSRKdU/s1600-h/eastwestbway4.jpg"><img alt="east, west, bway" border="0" height="479" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TW60eRMEQZI/AAAAAAAABb8/TvlrVaf0E4M/eastwestbway_thumb2.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="east, west, bway" width="562" /></a><br /><br />History often paints immigration in broad strokes: the Irish came with the potato famines of 1845-1849; the Germans came after the Central European revolutions in 1848; the Chinese came at the end of the Gold Rush and the completion of the Transcontinental Railroad, after rampant discrimination out west in the 1870s; the Italians came following natural disasters and economic depression in southern Italy in the 1870s; and the Russian, Polish and Eastern Europeans, mostly Jewish, came as a result of pogroms and rampant discrimination starting in the 1880s.&nbsp; All true; but one might think New York had little immigration until the mid-1840s. <br /><br />Between 1820 and 1840, the population of Manhattan grew from 123,000 to over 310,000.&nbsp; Mostly English, German (including German Jews) and Irish came to the new country for their own reasons, poverty being the most common.&nbsp; Two things would bring the Irish in huge numbers before the potato famines. They were a huge part of the labor force that built the Erie Canal between 1817 and when it opened in 1825.&nbsp; Also in 1817, the Black Ball Line began running packet ships between Liverpool and New York.&nbsp; What was different and significant about this operation was that they sailed on a regular schedule, no longer waiting for a full load before disembarking, and in “Priceline fashion,” it would’ve been better to fill a spot at a reduced fare than have no fare at all.&nbsp; <br /><br />Many Germans who fought as mercenaries on behalf of the British stayed on after the Revolution, and some were joined by family (this was how John Jacob Astor came to New York, following his brother Henry who, according to Kenneth Dunshee's <i>As You Pass By</i>, came over as a Hessian soldier).&nbsp; <br /><br />The Russian, Polish and Eastern European Jewish history with which the Lower East Side is closely associated is in some respects an easier history to wrap one’s mind around than the immigrant history that immediately preceded the area.&nbsp; The period from the 1880s until 1924 (when the wall on immigration went up) has its unifying threads of a people in similar situations, beliefs and on trajectories through history.&nbsp; Understanding the area between the 1840s and 1880s, however, can be like trying to unstir a cup of coffee. <br /><br />Immigration had changed the area drastically when the following article was written for the <i>New York Times</i> in 1872—ten years <i>before </i>the waves of immigration that would come to define the area today.&nbsp; Titled: <b><i>Old Houses: The Mansion of Hendrick Rutgers</i></b><br /><br /><b><i><a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TW60e69aVyI/AAAAAAAABcA/6MYU2I8R1mQ/s1600-h/nyt45%5B16%5D.jpg"><img alt="nyt45" border="0" height="102" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TW60fJVvJmI/AAAAAAAABcE/2ujL8WQBlRI/nyt45_thumb%5B13%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border: 0px none; display: inline;" title="nyt45" width="514" /></a><br /></i></b><img alt="nyt35" border="0" height="1637" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TW60hiYmPfI/AAAAAAAABcI/50Bl8rf-p8k/nyt35_thumb%5B1%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="nyt35" width="515" /><br /><br />Notice the author doesn't complain of Italians, they haven't arrived yet. And the Jews the author talks about are mostly German Jews, not yet the Russian, Polish and Eastern European Jews who are not due for another 10 years.&nbsp; In 1872 there are <i>some</i> Chinese nearby, on the other side of the Bowery but, like the Irish, they will for the most part be dispersed throughout the city in jobs as domestic servants.&nbsp; By the mid 1850s Kleindeutschland would take root with German-Jewish shops along Chrystie, Forsythe and Eldridge Streets, from Division to Grand. Germans, Hungarians and others would group together by language and culture (basically, city of origin).&nbsp; The author of the above article is in part describing original Kleindeutschland, which will simultaneously shift uptown and expand, transforming Avenue B into a German Broadway, and settling Yorkville further uptown by reach of the elevated train, as it's displaced by the masses arriving from Russia, Poland and Eastern Europe. <br /><br />As the crescendo of immigration rises, Lord and Taylor, not knowing its breadth of depth, opens a branch store at Grand and Chrystie in 1853 (and remains open until 1902).&nbsp; As early as 1860 though, they sense the changes, and not so much a reaction to immigration as an awareness that Broadway is now “the place to be,” they open another branch at the corner of Broadway on Grand Street, nine blocks west.&nbsp; Brooks Brothers would move directly to Broadway and Grand in 1857.&nbsp; <br /><br />The E. S. Ridley Department Store building survives today on Grand Street and Orchard Street, right in the middle of Delancey’s old square and in the midst of blocks choked with tenements. Ridley opened 1849, just before the German “wave.”&nbsp; In 1862, a horse drawn railroad line connected Grand Street with ferry terminals allowing shoppers from Brooklyn to easily shop Grand Street, creating an east-west shopping district that was Broadway’s closest rival.&nbsp; Ridley’s expanded to take up the entire block in 1883, just at the start of Eastern European and Russian “waves.”&nbsp;&nbsp; <br /><br />Between the 1880s and 1920s, Italian and Eastern European immigration had the effect of turning previous immigrations almost into historical footnotes.&nbsp; Ridley’s would leave in 1901, followed by Lord and Taylor in 1902.&nbsp; “By 1894,” according to Gerard Wolfe, “the population reached an astonishing 986 people per acre—one-and-a-half times that of Bombay, India!” <br /><br />From <i>Valentines Manual of Old New York, 1921</i>, speaking about East Broadway from the 1850s up to the 1880s... <br /><br /><a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TW60hzhkENI/AAAAAAAABcM/bTdAAbVnBGE/s1600-h/LandT24.jpg"><img alt="Land T2" border="0" height="113" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TW60idc4cGI/AAAAAAAABcQ/8pPP3dBmEKo/LandT2_thumb2.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="Land T2" width="532" /></a> <br /><br /><a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TW60jFPXIWI/AAAAAAAABcU/q7X7DoM3DsU/s1600-h/LandT5.jpg"><img alt="Land T" border="0" height="477" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TW60j4G2MNI/AAAAAAAABcY/XvJShSrXcqc/LandT_thumb3.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="Land T" width="539" /></a> <br /><br />&nbsp; <br /><br /><a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TW60kTydVCI/AAAAAAAABcc/BxFHJZlaQ8w/s1600-h/GrandStreet5.jpg"><img alt="Grand Street" border="0" height="729" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TW60llr2hKI/AAAAAAAABcg/AdfBjwST1h4/GrandStreet_thumb3.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="Grand Street" width="543" /></a> <br /><br /><a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TW60mHFmlmI/AAAAAAAABck/GrLfFAlOEzE/s1600-h/DivisionStreet6.jpg"><img alt="Division Street" border="0" height="818" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TW60nSKw3DI/AAAAAAAABco/M63zS10VFio/DivisionStreet_thumb4.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="Division Street" width="552" /></a><br /><br />What’s incredible is how an area that saw so much change so quickly, can re-double the amount of change and in half the time. But that’s the story of New York.&nbsp; <br /><br /><a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TW60nzPPzjI/AAAAAAAABcs/sC7mRnFruLI/s1600-h/rid1.jpg"><img alt="rid" border="0" height="765" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TW60oy98vcI/AAAAAAAABcw/Ycgm4DFKVeQ/rid_thumb.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="rid" width="544" /></a> <br /><br />The single most salient fact that illuminates the Lower East Side's most important role in history as an incubator for so many immigrant groups is that four world-renowned, multimillion-dollar, global, ethnic self-help groups started within a 5-10 minute walk of one another (though technically some are across the border from the area under discussion, and the Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association started in San Francisco the year before.) <br />&nbsp; <br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-BKTWjGpBPsc/TXOGraVMUZI/AAAAAAAABfo/yzEmgY4YDhg/s1600/ethnic%2Bself%2Bhelp%2Borgsa.jpg" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" height="379" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-BKTWjGpBPsc/TXOGraVMUZI/AAAAAAAABfo/yzEmgY4YDhg/s400/ethnic%2Bself%2Bhelp%2Borgsa.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><br /><br /><a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TW60r5K90gI/AAAAAAAABc8/ZaluQBEBUAE/s1600-h/Ethnic%20LESi2%5B4%5D.jpg"><img alt="Ethnic LESi2" border="0" height="468" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TW60tZXlKuI/AAAAAAAABdA/LFkmWqQKI5w/Ethnic%20LESi2_thumb%5B2%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border: 0px none; display: inline;" title="Ethnic LESi2" width="549" /></a><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/ManhattanUnlocked/~4/0srzZEPswPM" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>Robert Amellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06084801755976271616noreply@blogger.com29http://manhattanunlocked.blogspot.com/2011/03/story-behind-lower-east-side.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2681192941667483351.post-39890586924451226262011-02-16T11:16:00.005-05:002011-03-30T02:26:33.447-04:00Manhattan on the NileThis is a small tribute to the brave and amazing people of Tahrir Square—leaderless crowds of Gandhis and Martin Luther Kings who revolutionized revolution itself.&nbsp; To acknowledge and bring awareness of that great, age-old culture, this post will look at Egyptian influences from the past, present (and future!) in Manhattan’s streetscape.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; <br />&nbsp; <br />(Just before posting this, I read about Lara Logan with CBS.&nbsp; I still stand by those opening words; she was rescued by a group of women and soldiers within the same crowd.&nbsp; I’d like to think it was an aberration, but she was surrounded by a group of 200.&nbsp; It makes me think of Kitty Genovese. How much more backwards can a situation be when there’s civility in revolution and such barbarism towards an individual.&nbsp; And as for the press that thought it important to mention it, it doesn’t matter whether or not she was Jewish. The rest of this post will continue as originally written.) <br /><br />There’s actually a great precedent for democratic ideals emblazoned in the Manhattan streetscape.&nbsp; The first great architectural wave to sweep the city (and the nation) was the 1830s and 40s Greek Revival movement, a building trend that went into frenzy mode after the Greek War of Independence and that country’s break from the Ottoman Empire in the 1820s. The city embraced the temple form in every building type from churches and commercial buildings to homes. So prolific was the style that you can’t walk a few blocks below 14th Street today without passing at least a few examples. Some of the more well-known include: <a href="http://www.google.com/images?hl=en&amp;sugexp=nspc&amp;xhr=t&amp;q=federal+hall+national+memorial&amp;cp=15&amp;qe=RmVkZXJhbCBIYWxsIE5B&amp;qesig=hh70swxIxj0Ez5tQbTDrzg&amp;pkc=AFgZ2tmspDa6Q_0acERz6cmbGlB1V1SEpjIDPIfIbBPL9CUhHDvVk_W8PsI0MnNcGl9KDLnkRrSy4rhf03c9jljbxeOChOI9tw&amp;bav=on.1,or.&amp;um=1&amp;ie=UTF-8&amp;source=og&amp;sa=N&amp;tab=wi&amp;biw=1126&amp;bih=567"><b>Federal Hall National Memorial</b></a> on Wall Street, Washington Square’s <a href="http://www.google.com/images?um=1&amp;hl=en&amp;biw=1126&amp;bih=567&amp;tbs=isch%3A1&amp;sa=1&amp;q=washington+Sqaure%27s+the+row&amp;aq=f&amp;aqi=&amp;aql=&amp;oq=">“<b>The Row</b>,”</a> <a href="http://www.google.com/images?um=1&amp;hl=en&amp;biw=1126&amp;bih=567&amp;tbs=isch%3A1&amp;sa=1&amp;q=St.+Peter%27s+Barclay+Street&amp;aq=f&amp;aqi=&amp;aql=&amp;oq="><b>St. Peter’s Church</b></a> on Barclay Street, and the <a href="http://www.google.com/images?um=1&amp;hl=en&amp;biw=1126&amp;bih=567&amp;tbs=isch%3A1&amp;sa=1&amp;q=merchant+house+museum&amp;btnG=Search&amp;aq=f&amp;aqi=&amp;aql=&amp;oq="><b>Merchant’s House Museum</b></a>—all adorned with entrance elements of columns and pediments that herald the birthplace of democracy.&nbsp; Let’s hope Egyptian architecture can one day evoke those ideals for a modern time.<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /><br />About the same time as the Greek Revival movement, a smaller wave of Egyptian Revival architecture rippled across the nation following Napoleon’s (most undemocratic) conquest of Egypt, and then Britain’s likewise incursion down the Nile in the late 1700s.&nbsp; Publications from Napoleon’s expedition in the early 1800s </span></span><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: small;">(he took scientists with him)</span></span><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: small;"> would fuel interest in Egyptian styles.&nbsp; </span><i><br /></i></span><br />Chapters on Egyptian architecture in architecture books, when they are there, are usually the smallest—but they’re always the first. The truth is, in a way <i>all</i> architecture is Egyptian.&nbsp; Owen Jones says this in his seminal work on architectural ornamentation across the world’s great cultures, in <i>The Grammar of Ornament</i> (p. 47). <br /><blockquote>…[Regarding Egypt,] whilst we can trace in direct succession the Greek, the Roman, the Byzantine, with its offshoots, the Arabian, the Moresque and the Gothic, from this great parent, we must believe the architecture of Egypt to be a pure original style, which arose with civilization in Central Africa, passed through countless ages, to the culminating point of perfection and the state of decline in which we see it…The Egyptians are inferior only to themselves. In all other styles we can trace a rapid ascent from infancy, founded on some bygone style, to a culminating point of perfection, when the foreign influence was modified or discarded, to a period of slow, lingering decline, feeding on its own elements. In the Egyptian we have no traces of infancy or of any foreign influence; and we must, therefore, believe that they went for inspiration direct from nature.</blockquote>And Egyptian art <i>almost </i>received a prominent Fifth Avenue display alongside other great traditions. Have you ever noticed that the front of the <b>Metropolitan Museum of Art</b> appears to be missing something?&nbsp; It is.&nbsp; Richard Morris Hunt died in 1895 before his plans for the facade could be fulfilled. In <i>Shaping the City</i> (p. 10), Gregory Gilmartin explains,<br /><blockquote>The Fifth Avenue facade was dominated by four pairs of immense columns, and these were meant to serve as the pedestals for sculptural groups representing the ‘four great periods of art’: Egyptian, Greek, Renaissance and Modern. Between each pair of columns sat a niche where Hunt intended to set a copy of one great work from each historical era. </blockquote>It was “Modern” art that stuck in the craw of the trustees; who knew if it would stand the test of time, and so the niches remain blank today.&nbsp;&nbsp; <br /><br /><a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TVvouTQ1YKI/AAAAAAAABQQ/eUn2bCt3oEs/s1600-h/met%202%5B9%5D.jpg"><img alt="met 2" border="0" height="369" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TVketFRLmyI/AAAAAAAABQU/XRrsQMfZJfA/met%202_thumb%5B7%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px;" title="met 2" width="500" /></a><br /><br />When we think of Egyptian forms, it’s the pyramid that first comes to mind—the tombs of the pharaoh.&nbsp; And many building tops around the city allude to it, some more obvious than others. <br /><br />The step-pyramid atop the <b>Bankers Trust Company Building</b> (Trowbridge &amp; Livingston, 1912) on Wall Street is one of the most hidden crowns in the city—not tall enough to be seen over surrounding buildings on the narrow streets of the Financial District.&nbsp; Here it is from three blocks away, between the steeple of <b>Trinity Church</b> (Upjohn, 1846) and <b>40 Wall Street</b> (Severance, 1929), another pyramid-topped building.<br /><br /><a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TVkemigs2KI/AAAAAAAABQY/cHjsrLAAeOE/s1600-h/Bankers%20Trust%5B5%5D.jpg"><img alt="Bankers Trust" border="0" height="497" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TVkemxFVo8I/AAAAAAAABQc/sd7kEDhvO2Q/Bankers%20Trust_thumb%5B3%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="Bankers Trust" width="501" /></a> <br /><b><br />The</b> <b>New York Museum of Jewish Heritage</b> (Kevin Roche, 1996) is a postmodern hexagonal step pyramid.&nbsp; Appropriate for a museum that is laid out as a timeline of Jewish culture and history. <br /><br /><a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TVvowSDsWBI/AAAAAAAABQg/hpbSnuB-8Ss/s1600-h/Museum-of-Jewish-Heritage1%20nypinet%5B4%5D.jpg"><img alt="Museum-of-Jewish-Heritage1 nypinet" border="0" height="372" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TVvoxOkXhMI/AAAAAAAABQo/EiX1mnxBe-o/Museum-of-Jewish-Heritage1%20nypinet_thumb%5B2%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="Museum-of-Jewish-Heritage1 nypinet" width="489" /></a><br /><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><i>Courtesy of NYPI.net</i></span><br /><br />Another form closely associated with the Egyptian is the Obelisk, built to flank the entrance of Egyptian temples. Central Park has the oldest manmade structure in the entire city, a tad over 3,600 years—<b>Cleopatra’s Needle</b>.&nbsp; According to the plaque on the monument, this one spent 1,588 years in Heliopolis, and 1,893 years in Alexandria (the Romans moved it there).&nbsp; On February 22, 2011, it will have spent 130 years in Central Park.&nbsp; Not until 5363 will Cleopatra's Needle have been in New York longer than Egypt—to put it in high mental relief, doubling the time since the year 0 only takes us to 4022!<br /><br /><a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TVkeot0iIhI/AAAAAAAABFI/d7dN4G4NN58/s1600-h/IMG_19542%5B5%5D.jpg"><img alt="IMG_19542" border="0" height="342" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TVkepmNvUJI/AAAAAAAABFM/bCkeOG-Jv_U/IMG_19542_thumb%5B3%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="IMG_19542" width="224" /></a><a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TVkenrioueI/AAAAAAAABFA/m7T0klPCZjo/s1600-h/IMG_1942%5B6%5D.jpg"><img alt="IMG_1942" border="0" height="345" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TVkeoFqmOzI/AAAAAAAABFE/-Anz5ssDLsw/IMG_1942_thumb%5B4%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="IMG_1942" width="266" /></a>&nbsp; <br />&nbsp;<a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TVkeqCU03aI/AAAAAAAABFQ/WFv6epxOKq0/s1600-h/IMG_1945%5B9%5D.jpg"><img alt="IMG_1945" border="0" height="232" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TVkeqkYyb_I/AAAAAAAABFU/l_mi00_wEe8/IMG_1945_thumb%5B7%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="IMG_1945" width="291" /></a> <a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TVkerBvlJTI/AAAAAAAABFY/22P_Izmp9t4/s1600-h/IMG_1949%5B7%5D.jpg"><img alt="IMG_1949" border="0" height="233" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TVker7j5JUI/AAAAAAAABFc/5fWR2iOVJp8/IMG_1949_thumb%5B5%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="IMG_1949" width="183" /></a> <br /><br />Another obelisk stands in Madison Square, the <b>Worth Monument</b> (Batterson, 1857).&nbsp; Entombed beneath where Broadway crosses Fifth Avenue is General William Jenkins Worth, for whom Worth Street in lower Manhattan, and Ft. Worth, Texas are both named.&nbsp; He is a little remembered veteran and once great hero of the Mexican-American War of 1849.<br /><br /><a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TVvoxue1DRI/AAAAAAAABQs/uVNYbL9zogM/s1600-h/388px-Worth_Monument_NY_Life_full%5B5%5D.jpg"><img alt="388px-Worth_Monument_NY_Life_full" border="0" height="456" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TVvoyFJd-OI/AAAAAAAABQ0/H9kx2YITpsw/388px-Worth_Monument_NY_Life_full_thumb%5B3%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: block; float: none; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" title="388px-Worth_Monument_NY_Life_full" width="305" /></a><br />Egyptian architecture lends itself to great bulwark structures that seek to impart a sense of mass, stability, strength and power. John Augustus Roebling, the genius architect of the <b>Brooklyn Bridge, </b>was originally inspired by an Egyptian design for the bridge towers.&nbsp; These were his 1857 plans…<br /><br /><a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TVkezG7x_7I/AAAAAAAABQ4/-lcV72dnJRo/s1600-h/Brooklyn%20Bridge%5B6%5D.jpg"><img alt="Brooklyn Bridge" border="0" height="652" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TVke08oZm4I/AAAAAAAABRA/QI43MjD1ipk/Brooklyn%20Bridge_thumb%5B4%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="Brooklyn Bridge" width="500" /></a><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><i><br />From The Great Bridge, by David McCullough. Rensselear Polytechnic Institute.</i></span><br /><br />Before looking at buildings around the city, let’s look at a few of the forms and features that distinguish Egyptian architecture, using the Temple of Dendur at the Metropolitan Museum of Art as a model. The temple is from 15 B.C., given to the Met in 1967.<br /><br />Battered (or tapered) walls. They’re called “pylons” when two flank the entrance to a temple… <br /><br /><a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TVketyb_SDI/AAAAAAAABRE/PSqsLkrffMk/s1600-h/battered%20wall%5B14%5D.jpg"><img align="left" alt="battered wall" border="0" height="376" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TVkeubJPr8I/AAAAAAAABRM/Woc7BmYO28g/battered%20wall_thumb%5B14%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px;" title="battered wall" width="249" /></a><br /><a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TVkeuvfJcsI/AAAAAAAABRU/ZLYUzPOhoT4/s1600-h/battered%20wall%202%5B6%5D.jpg"><img alt="battered wall 2" border="0" height="384" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TVkevJxL8iI/AAAAAAAABRc/PzosEbvsF1A/battered%20wall%202_thumb%5B4%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="battered wall 2" width="245" /></a> <br /><br />Narrow doors and windows…<br /><br />&nbsp;<a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TVkevfrpxUI/AAAAAAAABRo/zEjGC-026yY/s1600-h/muse%202%5B14%5D.jpg"><img alt="muse 2" border="0" height="633" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TVkev8ZMl9I/AAAAAAAABRs/59YiiZHfEuU/muse%202_thumb%5B12%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px;" title="muse 2" width="497" /></a><br /><a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TVkgcdIs8UI/AAAAAAAABR0/ryHSIPnHpi0/s1600-h/muse%2014%5B4%5D.jpg"><img alt="muse 14" border="0" height="434" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TVkgcj9y82I/AAAAAAAABR4/8upOc-i9aW0/muse%2014_thumb%5B2%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="muse 14" width="502" /></a> <br /><br />A quarter-round, concave roof line, called a cavetto cornice…<br /><br /><a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TVkewp2He8I/AAAAAAAABSA/aSnat66gQ7E/s1600-h/muse%209%5B5%5D.jpg"><img alt="muse 9" border="0" height="342" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TVkexM_BR3I/AAAAAAAABSI/y1V833r9njc/muse%209_thumb%5B3%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="muse 9" width="498" /></a> <br />&nbsp;<a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TVkga5dnM8I/AAAAAAAABSU/KmEP_2zb_oU/s1600-h/muse%2010%5B4%5D.jpg"><img alt="muse 10" border="0" height="343" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TVkgbJnVrdI/AAAAAAAABSY/O3IeWse9IhY/muse%2010_thumb%5B2%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="muse 10" width="496" /></a> <br /><br />Here are cavetto cornices on <b>IS 90</b> at Jumel Pace and 168th Street (Dattner &amp; Associates, 1999).<br /><br /><a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TVkexmG-QkI/AAAAAAAABGI/RQpPDm_vhTM/s1600-h/IS%2090%5B5%5D.jpg"><img align="left" alt="IS 90" border="0" height="331" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TVkex3xDTwI/AAAAAAAABGM/7uSUuXEDXQE/IS%2090_thumb%5B3%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px;" title="IS 90" width="400" /></a> <br /><a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TVkeyTmxW1I/AAAAAAAABGQ/saLNRkttOoU/s1600-h/IS%2090%202%5B5%5D.jpg"><img alt="IS 90 2" border="0" height="400" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TVkey198e0I/AAAAAAAABGU/Q70UZo5BpRU/IS%2090%202_thumb%5B3%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="IS 90 2" width="323" /></a><br /><br />Two long gone structures, and substantial examples of Egyptian architecture, were the Croton Aqueduct’s 25 million gallon <b>Distributing Reservoir,</b> on the site of today’s New York Public Library, and the original “tombs” prison.<br /><br />A most appropriate architectural mode for its function—the Nile <i>was </i>life for the Egyptians, and the reservoir made life possible in New York City.&nbsp; It stood from 1842-1900.<br /><br /><a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TVke17fpsCI/AAAAAAAABSk/4hA7Sq5rQFA/s1600-h/Croton%20Reservoir%5B5%5D.jpg"><img alt="Croton Reservoir" border="0" height="240" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TVke2VKgcFI/AAAAAAAABSo/Lt28oveoOYE/Croton%20Reservoir_thumb%5B3%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="Croton Reservoir" width="497" /></a> <span style="font-size: xx-small;"><i>The New York Public Library</i></span><br /><br />This view is looking north on Fifth Avenue from 40th Street.<br />&nbsp; <br /><a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TVke26NyjeI/AAAAAAAABSs/QNZJUi-N2kQ/s1600-h/croton%20res%202%5B5%5D.jpg"><img alt="croton res 2" border="0" height="302" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TVke3Y1bcEI/AAAAAAAABS8/8cBV3woASl8/croton%20res%202_thumb%5B3%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="croton res 2" width="503" /></a> <span style="font-size: xx-small;"><i>The New York Public Library</i></span><br /><br />Battered walls…<br /><br /><a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TVke3h2soSI/AAAAAAAABG8/856B-B3aYRE/s1600-h/croton%20res2%5B4%5D.jpg"><img alt="croton res2" border="0" height="418" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TVke4ATZppI/AAAAAAAABHA/4lobRwAq_YY/croton%20res2_thumb%5B2%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="croton res2" width="351" /></a> <br /><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><i>The New York Public Library</i></span><br /><br />Cavetto cornices…<br /><br /><a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TVke4ZNp5TI/AAAAAAAABTA/4s5s7tLqzHs/s1600-h/cavetto%5B5%5D.jpg"><img alt="cavetto" border="0" height="296" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TVke40PanwI/AAAAAAAABTI/7T0OMXoOCiw/cavetto_thumb%5B3%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="cavetto" width="493" /></a> <span style="font-size: xx-small;"><i>The New York Public Library</i></span><br /><br />Narrow openings.&nbsp; This fantastic illustration from 1850 looks from about 6th Avenue towards the future site of <b>Bryant Park,</b> and the back of the <b>NYPL</b>.&nbsp; The lady and two children are crossing south on 42nd Street.<br /><br /><a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TVke5x-zV-I/AAAAAAAABHM/GtdIjf_LodE/s1600-h/croton%20reservoir%202a%5B5%5D.jpg"><img alt="croton reservoir 2a" border="0" height="361" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TVke6RFgQ3I/AAAAAAAABHQ/hOkJcQSV_S8/croton%20reservoir%202a_thumb%5B3%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="croton reservoir 2a" width="509" /></a>&nbsp;<span style="font-size: xx-small;"><i>The New York Public Library</i></span><br /><br />Here’s about that spot today.&nbsp; The reservoir was where the NYPL is situated, somewhat obscured by trees of Bryant Park.<br /><br /><a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TVvpDSwr17I/AAAAAAAABTQ/vL4t6nCqBMc/s1600-h/IMG_2043%5B4%5D.jpg"><img alt="IMG_2043" border="0" height="382" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TVvpD5qONnI/AAAAAAAABTY/N6v7izz9Q08/IMG_2043_thumb%5B2%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="IMG_2043" width="503" /></a> <br /><br />The reservoir might have been inspired by an earlier one, built by the Manhattan Company (the future Chase Bank) on Chambers Street between Broadway and Centre Street.&nbsp; The Manhattan Company was a much better bank than a water provider. <br /><br /><a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TVvpEYumHiI/AAAAAAAABTc/ELCCsBpqoBk/s1600-h/manhattan_company_reservoir_hi%5B5%5D.jpg"><img alt="manhattan_company_reservoir_hi" border="0" height="295" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TVvpE7LoHfI/AAAAAAAABTg/mUKKDwvK6q4/manhattan_company_reservoir_hi_thumb%5B3%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="manhattan_company_reservoir_hi" width="504" /></a> <br /><br />Albeit an unfortunate one, the “tombs” was another example of New York’s foray into Egyptian Revival architecture.&nbsp; Built over the poorly filled in Collect Pond at Leonard and Centre Street. <b>The New York Halls of Justice and House of Detention</b>, as it was officially known, served as the dark, dank prison from 1838-1902.&nbsp; The <b>Manhattan Detention Center</b> stands on the site today overlooking Chinatown (Bernie Madoff was there for a stretch).<br /><br /><br />&nbsp;<a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TVke78uJe2I/AAAAAAAABHU/B3y141l5CNU/s1600-h/tombs%202a%5B7%5D.jpg"><img alt="tombs 2a" border="0" height="343" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TVke8rKVhOI/AAAAAAAABHY/Sdgz_Q1Zwd4/tombs%202a_thumb%5B5%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="tombs 2a" width="493" /></a> <span style="font-size: xx-small;"><i>The New York Public Library</i></span><br /><br />Here’s a zoom-in of the battered side panels of the windows, mimicing pylons flanking an Egyptian temple.<br /><br /><a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TVke89AvFBI/AAAAAAAABTk/9pceQxHTpDI/s1600-h/tombs%202abc%5B5%5D.jpg"><img alt="tombs 2abc" border="0" height="400" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TVke9RggydI/AAAAAAAABTs/g2AuO1wFHTw/tombs%202abc_thumb%5B3%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="tombs 2abc" width="502" /></a> <br /><br />And this is the Leonard Street entrance (above, to the left).&nbsp; Paying no attention to the unsettling image of the young boy escorted into prison by two officials (it was way back in 1887), a cavetto cornice can be seen above the battered door, and two bundled palm leaf columns flank the entrance.<br /><br /><a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TVke_kuUeJI/AAAAAAAABHk/Vu0HWAB3gjM/s1600-h/tombs%202%20pinney%5B5%5D.jpg"><img alt="tombs 2 pinney" border="0" height="765" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TVkfAsMxBGI/AAAAAAAABHo/qG6AiVOeVtk/tombs%202%20pinney_thumb%5B3%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="tombs 2 pinney" width="428" /></a><br /><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><i>The New York Public Library</i></span><br /><br />The inscription below the illustration reads: "They saw the policemen lead Pinney into the Tombs prison."&nbsp; <br /><br />Here is an original of the columns above, on display in the Metropolitan Museum.&nbsp; This one has five bands bundling the palms together.<br /><br /><a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TVkfCAGx1xI/AAAAAAAABTw/4NSZR5Q7JqE/s1600-h/muse%203%5B6%5D.jpg"><img alt="muse 3" border="0" height="542" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TVkfCnA-pEI/AAAAAAAABT0/QyjVPo_106E/muse%203_thumb%5B4%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="muse 3" width="428" /></a> <br /><br />Looking at buildings standing around the city today…the least “pure” example is <b>The Bowling Green Offices</b> building at 5-11 Broadway (W. &amp; G Audsley, 1898). The style is called “Eclectic” for just this reason, it mixes Classical, Egyptian, Renaissance and probably a few other styles in its facade.<br /><br /><a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TVvpIB0AlNI/AAAAAAAABUE/SQB22qY8Wos/s1600-h/IMG_2012%5B4%5D.jpg"><img alt="IMG_2012" border="0" height="378" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TVvpJCmhZJI/AAAAAAAABUI/dyJdxYh8Pqk/IMG_2012_thumb%5B2%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="IMG_2012" width="497" /></a> <br /><br />What’s most Egyptian are the battered walls framing the entrance, and its cavetto cornice.<br /><br />&nbsp;<a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TVvpKAPagZI/AAAAAAAABUM/ysg_eXnsjYc/s1600-h/IMG_2013%5B4%5D.jpg"><img alt="IMG_2013" border="0" height="374" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TVvpLBQ9hlI/AAAAAAAABUQ/u8glZ0ogmO0/IMG_2013_thumb%5B2%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="IMG_2013" width="492" /></a> <br /><br />An upper floor window has a palm leaf cavetto “cornice.” <br /><br />&nbsp;<a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TVvpL0xJ2KI/AAAAAAAABUU/z62GWbyWwTs/s1600-h/IMG_2006%5B5%5D.jpg"><img alt="IMG_2006" border="0" height="376" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TVvpMeQ286I/AAAAAAAABUY/KkifNJE1h4M/IMG_2006_thumb%5B3%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="IMG_2006" width="491" /></a>&nbsp; <br /><br />A row of squat composite (mixed style) columns have Egyptian elements as well. <br /><br /><a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TVvpM46yN8I/AAAAAAAABUc/Osxi0133pJo/s1600-h/IMG_2012i%5B6%5D.jpg"><img alt="IMG_2012i" border="0" height="284" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TVvpNoU3C5I/AAAAAAAABUg/ogkDDDT9Rpo/IMG_2012i_thumb%5B4%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="IMG_2012i" width="500" /></a> <br /><br />To the right is an example of an Egyptian capital from Owen Jones, <i>The Ornament of Grammar.</i>&nbsp; Aquatic plants emerge from bundled papyrus in the illustration.<br /><br /><a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TVkfgQsAm4I/AAAAAAAABKU/2WeHm2CqX-Y/s1600-h/bowling%20green%20offices%205%5B5%5D.jpg"><img align="left" alt="bowling green offices 5" border="0" height="286" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TVkfgsppBPI/AAAAAAAABKY/xRxPGK3hgvU/bowling%20green%20offices%205_thumb%5B3%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px;" title="bowling green offices 5" width="261" /></a> <br />&nbsp;<a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TVkfg7ArmbI/AAAAAAAABKc/n_qQ1_KXUtc/s1600-h/owen%202%5B4%5D.jpg"><img alt="owen 2" border="0" height="284" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TVkfhSP_LvI/AAAAAAAABKg/SOZDOG595Vg/owen%202_thumb%5B2%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="owen 2" width="225" /></a><br /><br />The Egyptians often looked to two plants that grew in the Nile to embellish their jewelry, pottery, columns and buildings: the <b>lotus flower</b> and <b>papyrus plant.<br /></b> <br />This vase is currently on display at The Met, titled: <i>White cross-lined ware vase with plant designs, </i>from circa 3900–3700 B.C.<br /><br /><a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TVkfDd4r2gI/AAAAAAAABUk/As18W87_rWg/s1600-h/Papyrus%20nasstec.co.uk%5B7%5D.jpg"><img align="left" alt="Papyrus nasstec.co.uk" border="0" height="317" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TVkfDgOo1PI/AAAAAAAABUo/LJ7Ns_S7ZFc/Papyrus%20nasstec.co.uk_thumb%5B7%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px;" title="Papyrus nasstec.co.uk" width="229" /></a> <br /><img alt="muse 1" border="0" height="316" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TVkfErNdsZI/AAAAAAAABUs/bctk0ZeiWw4/muse%201_thumb%5B4%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="muse 1" width="248" /><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><i><br />The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Rogers Fund, 1912</i></span><br /><a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TVkfE5LsenI/AAAAAAAABU0/6S2nrBgJV84/s1600-h/owen%20jones-1856-the%20grammar%20of%20ornament-egypt%2062%5B12%5D.jpg"><img align="left" alt="owen jones-1856-the grammar of ornament-egypt 62" border="0" height="385" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TVkfFa4YYjI/AAAAAAAABVA/wJudtRXJHdA/owen%20jones-1856-the%20grammar%20of%20ornament-egypt%2062_thumb%5B10%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px;" title="owen jones-1856-the grammar of ornament-egypt 62" width="163" /></a> <br /><a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TVkfF5AdNbI/AAAAAAAABVI/jsYesDnKGj8/s1600-h/papyrus%20Comesu%20Tradehub%5B9%5D.jpg"><img alt="papyrus Comesu Tradehub" border="0" height="386" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TVkfJWOp11I/AAAAAAAABVM/tiKumtEsP9Y/papyrus%20Comesu%20Tradehub_thumb%5B7%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="papyrus Comesu Tradehub" width="301" /></a> <br /><br />And while the <b>lotus blossom</b> would be used by many cultures in art and architecture, it was first used by the Egyptians. <br /><br /><a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TVkfJwajqdI/AAAAAAAABVc/0T-Dsk07yP4/s1600-h/lotus-flower-1%5B9%5D.jpg"><img align="left" alt="lotus-flower-1" border="0" height="185" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TVkfKKd_QFI/AAAAAAAABVg/T4dp9XiyI_8/lotus-flower-1_thumb%5B7%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px;" title="lotus-flower-1" width="233" /></a><a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TVkfLDLeJLI/AAAAAAAABVk/3cJZGHMlSg0/s1600-h/Lotus_Blossom%5B6%5D.jpg"><img alt="Lotus_Blossom" border="0" height="188" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TVkfMEtO0uI/AAAAAAAABVs/x7UW1BrXS04/Lotus_Blossom_thumb%5B4%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: block; float: none; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" title="Lotus_Blossom" width="243" /></a>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; <span style="font-size: xx-small;"><i>Courtesy of Common Bread website</i></span><br /><br />Again from The Met's collection, titled: <i>Double "Tell el-Jahudiyeh" Vase with Incised </i><i>Lotus Flowers, probably manufactured in Egypt, </i>circa 1700–1600 B.C., with a close up on the lotus.<br /><br /><a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TVkfNK_5rSI/AAAAAAAABIs/6VlbuUHgzZg/s1600-h/egyptian%20lotus%20vase%5B5%5D.jpg"><img alt="egyptian lotus vase" border="0" height="195" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TVkfNlKyg4I/AAAAAAAABIw/wi5eOzWzrf0/egyptian%20lotus%20vase_thumb%5B3%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="egyptian lotus vase" width="212" /></a> <a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TVkfN_YQK4I/AAAAAAAABI0/BkYrQ3hle3k/s1600-h/egyptian%20lotus%20vasei%5B5%5D.jpg"><img alt="egyptian lotus vasei" border="0" height="199" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TVkfObFeEaI/AAAAAAAABI4/Hb9mSpS8AXc/egyptian%20lotus%20vasei_thumb%5B3%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="egyptian lotus vasei" width="251" /></a> <br /><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><i>The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Rogers Fund, 1923</i></span><br /><br />And another example from The Met, in bronze: <i>Lotus attachment element, </i>circa 1070–664 B.C. <br />&nbsp; <br /><a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TVkfOjW5btI/AAAAAAAABI8/boGwm97nPx0/s1600-h/egyptian%20lotus%20DP139135%5B5%5D.jpg"><img alt="egyptian lotus DP139135" border="0" height="416" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TVkfP3Cs57I/AAAAAAAABJA/jj8jkLgRCGg/egyptian%20lotus%20DP139135_thumb%5B3%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="egyptian lotus DP139135" width="474" /></a><br /><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><i>The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Theodore M. Davis Collection, Bequest of Theodore M. Davis, 1915</i></span> <br /><br />When looking at representations of papyrus and lotus, I think it’s easiest to tell them apart by the tops of the plants; papyrus has a smooth curved top while the lotus has pointy petals. I think the main image on the left is papyrus, all the other plant images are lotuses.&nbsp; <br /><br /><a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TVkfQhw_y0I/AAAAAAAABJE/_XQLhdIrx-U/s1600-h/lotus%20flower%5B4%5D.jpg"><img align="left" alt="lotus flower" border="0" height="300" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TVkfQ_vTzWI/AAAAAAAABJI/wjxrgy8h9KM/lotus%20flower_thumb%5B4%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px;" title="lotus flower" width="241" /></a> <br />&nbsp;&nbsp; <a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TVkfRutzg4I/AAAAAAAABJM/DrHCiwWGuSU/s1600-h/lotus%203%5B5%5D.jpg"><img alt="lotus 3" border="0" height="295" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TVkfRxc-zUI/AAAAAAAABJQ/CiQEfQ-wcUo/lotus%203_thumb%5B3%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="lotus 3" width="200" /></a> <br /><a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TVkfeE1hk5I/AAAAAAAABKM/IC-cc5dN8kA/s1600-h/Chysler%20bldg%20elevator%5B7%5D.jpg"></a><br />At the Temple of Dendur, The Met gives a description of the entrance: “Lining the temple base are carvings of papyrus and lotus plants that seem to grow from water, symbolized by figures of the Nile god Hapy….<br /><br /><a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TVkfYg7XIsI/AAAAAAAABV4/QPDhyVIGHQw/s1600-h/IMG_19853%5B6%5D.jpg"><img alt="IMG_19853" border="0" height="288" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TVkfZNfzxQI/AAAAAAAABWE/buxKhM20Fds/IMG_19853_thumb%5B4%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="IMG_19853" width="500" /></a> <br /><br />… The two columns on the porch rise toward the sky like tall bundles of papyrus stalks with lotus blossoms bound with them…<br /><br /><a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TVkfZ27XBvI/AAAAAAAABJs/laVwwCarqu8/s1600-h/muse%208%5B5%5D.jpg"><img alt="muse 8" border="0" height="374" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TVkfaZvhKZI/AAAAAAAABJw/hf4SeRjZdbE/muse%208_thumb%5B3%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="muse 8" width="499" /></a> <br /><br />…Above the gate and temple entrance are images of the sun disk flanked by the outspread wings of Horus, the sky god.”<br /><br /><a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TVkfa-T2yJI/AAAAAAAABJ0/75hSQfItbls/s1600-h/solar%20disk%20dendur%5B6%5D.jpg"><img alt="solar disk dendur" border="0" height="154" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TVkfbfoZs4I/AAAAAAAABJ4/ENYvYWD0oog/solar%20disk%20dendur_thumb%5B4%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="solar disk dendur" width="502" /></a> <br /><br />Here’s a close up of the capitals, bundled papyrus stalks and lotus blossoms. <br /><br /><a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TVkfb2zHmPI/AAAAAAAABJ8/zMpSVsbq_4o/s1600-h/IMG_19854%5B5%5D.jpg"><img alt="IMG_19854" border="0" height="299" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TVkfcf2mX0I/AAAAAAAABKA/La-7lM5EE6s/IMG_19854_thumb%5B3%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="IMG_19854" width="502" /></a> <br /><br />Though lotus blossoms are the main forms in the column’s capital, the carvings look to be papyrus. <br /><br /><a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TVkfdGuUk8I/AAAAAAAABKE/9XCUt6yZOpc/s1600-h/muse%2011%5B11%5D.jpg"><img alt="muse 11" border="0" height="381" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TVkfdp3uQlI/AAAAAAAABKI/9ZQjx3NhiKc/muse%2011_thumb%5B9%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="muse 11" width="502" /></a>&nbsp; <br /><a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TVkfg7ArmbI/AAAAAAAABKc/n_qQ1_KXUtc/s1600-h/owen%202%5B4%5D.jpg"></a><br />A second Egyptian Revival came on the scene during the Art Deco movement, after the 1922 discovery of Tutenkhamen's tomb.&nbsp; The <b>Chrysler Building’s</b> elevator doors appear to be an Art Deco lotus-papyrus composite…<br /><br /><a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TVkfeE1hk5I/AAAAAAAABKM/IC-cc5dN8kA/s1600-h/Chysler%20bldg%20elevator%5B7%5D.jpg"><img alt="Chysler bldg elevator" border="0" height="676" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TVkff2befRI/AAAAAAAABKQ/WVli0fW-0wM/Chysler%20bldg%20elevator_thumb%5B5%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="Chysler bldg elevator" width="504" /></a><br /><br />The <b>Fred. F. French building</b> (1927) on the east side of Fifth Avenue at the corner of 45th Street, was the first tall building north of 42nd Street.&nbsp; Its style is Art Deco with ancient themes; and though not purely Egyptian, the ancient Assyrian and Babylonian references <i>were</i> influenced by the Egyptians—it’s among the most beautiful buildings in the city. <br /><br /><a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TVvpUHD-DtI/AAAAAAAABWM/s5UMjRjaSOQ/s1600-h/IMG_2057i%5B7%5D.jpg"><img alt="IMG_2057i" border="0" height="378" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TVvpU_gEJOI/AAAAAAAABWQ/RT7CP0q65e0/IMG_2057i_thumb%5B5%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="IMG_2057i" width="498" /></a> <br /><br />Looking north on Fifth Avenue a few blocks south of the building (just above 43rd Street), it’s easy to miss one of the most beautiful water tower encasements in the city. (see the arrow?)<br /><br /><a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TVvpVhLl-KI/AAAAAAAABWU/ssyJHNfCfOc/s1600-h/IMG_2044i%5B13%5D.jpg"><img alt="IMG_2044i" border="0" height="384" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TVvpWKy8keI/AAAAAAAABWY/xiLNuf0efRU/IMG_2044i_thumb%5B9%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="IMG_2044i" width="505" /></a> <br /><br />The beehives are a common embellishment on commercial buildings (especially banks) throughout the city, symbolizing thrift and productivity—not Egyptian.&nbsp; But the central element is a take on the solar disk from the Temple of Dendur, associated with the Sun God Ra and Horus. <br /><br /><a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TVvpWwX3iYI/AAAAAAAABWc/sCHg7NdMt88/s1600-h/IMG_2048i%5B5%5D.jpg"><img alt="IMG_2048i" border="0" height="394" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TVvpYKp3p5I/AAAAAAAABWg/QWH05dX_G_8/IMG_2048i_thumb%5B3%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="IMG_2048i" width="614" /></a> <br /><br />But unlike the Temple of Dendur, the wings don’t stretch out from the solar disk, and instead appear on two griffins.&nbsp; Like the lotus, griffins appear in many different cultures, but they can be seen in Egyptian art as early as 3300 B.C. They united the most powerful beast and most powerful bird: the lion and the falcon (or eagle).<br /><br /><a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TVvpZaGTflI/AAAAAAAABWk/lL7HkTNJSnY/s1600-h/IMG_2049i%5B6%5D.jpg"><img alt="IMG_2049i" border="0" height="472" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TVvpao89JaI/AAAAAAAABWo/pfs5j_M2OqM/IMG_2049i_thumb%5B4%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="IMG_2049i" width="615" /></a> <br /><br />The main entrance...<br /><br /><a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TVvpbW0mDpI/AAAAAAAABWs/PdUfvuY60dw/s1600-h/IMG_2061i%5B4%5D.jpg"><img alt="IMG_2061i" border="0" height="374" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TVvpcnYG_nI/AAAAAAAABWw/neIinbVCSqc/IMG_2061i_thumb%5B2%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="IMG_2061i" width="492" /></a> <br /><br />Focusing just on the Egyptian elements, the lotus and what may be lotus buds, are arranged just as on the Temple of Dendur. <br /><br /><a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TVvpeK8KLII/AAAAAAAABW0/JG_S4otWn0s/s1600-h/IMG_2058i%5B4%5D.jpg"><img alt="IMG_2058i" border="0" height="378" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TVvpesR_6oI/AAAAAAAABW4/7nGtEbwUwCI/IMG_2058i_thumb%5B2%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="IMG_2058i" width="497" /></a> <br /><br />It makes sense that the west side would have the two buildings most committed to an Egyptian-inspired program, and just two blocks from each other: the <b>Pythian </b>and <b>the Alexandria</b>.<br /><br />This black and white image of the <b>Pythian</b> at 135 West 70th Street (Thomas Lamb, 1926) doesn’t do it justice, but it’s impossible to get a good shot from the street. The architect was noted for his many Broadway theaters. It’s over the top exuberant with Egyptian, Assyrian and Babylonian themes—and it's polychromatic (multi-colored), just as the Egyptians did it.&nbsp; (Windows were added to the front when it was converted to condos in 1982. Lady Gaga lived here for a while with her family.)<br /><br />&nbsp;<a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TVkfo6jaxfI/AAAAAAAABLM/smn8AFnR5n4/s1600-h/Left%2C%20Office%20for%20Metropolitan%20History%3B%20John%20Marshall%20Mantel%20for%20The%20New%20York%20Times%5B4%5D.jpg"><img alt="Left, Office for Metropolitan History; John Marshall Mantel for The New York Times" border="0" height="355" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TVkfpXrAWpI/AAAAAAAABLQ/_9CYwj7RyZQ/Left%2C%20Office%20for%20Metropolitan%20History%3B%20John%20Marshall%20Mantel%20for%20The%20New%20York%20Times_thumb%5B2%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="Left, Office for Metropolitan History; John Marshall Mantel for The New York Times" width="487" /></a> <span style="font-size: xx-small;"><i>Courtesy of Office of Metropolitan History, John Marshall Mantel for the New York Times<br /></i></span><br /><a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TVkfqeN4ptI/AAAAAAAABLU/ULNkA08JdnI/s1600-h/Pythian%2011%5B4%5D.jpg"><img alt="Pythian 11" border="0" height="388" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TVkfq6mYEzI/AAAAAAAABLY/WBt8XEnnhCw/Pythian%2011_thumb%5B2%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="Pythian 11" width="511" /></a> <br /><br />On the portico, the capitals are Assyrian.<br /><br /><a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TVkfw0VmTDI/AAAAAAAABLk/18L-bWBRaUg/s1600-h/Pythian%201%5B5%5D.jpg"><img alt="Pythian 1" border="0" height="293" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TVkfxdKG9NI/AAAAAAAABLo/2iUgz3RE2_c/Pythian%201_thumb%5B3%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="Pythian 1" width="492" /></a> <br /><br />A close up on details above…<br /><br />Lotus blossoms in two stages of growth.&nbsp; The chevrons, or wavy lines, underneath the griffin represent the Nile waters.<br /><br /><a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TVkfyTJ1y4I/AAAAAAAABLs/Ii9SGfHyBCI/s1600-h/IMG_19102%5B5%5D.jpg"><img alt="IMG_19102" border="0" height="457" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TVkfzC21j5I/AAAAAAAABL0/Lzz-TzmSaho/IMG_19102_thumb%5B3%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="IMG_19102" width="496" /></a> <br /><br />Columns with palm capitals.<br /><br /><a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TVkfz0-4pnI/AAAAAAAABL4/mhrqtbmDcAU/s1600-h/pythian%205%5B4%5D.jpg"><img alt="pythian 5" border="0" height="349" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TVkf0WuB0kI/AAAAAAAABL8/EJ8Ymdc7IGY/pythian%205_thumb%5B2%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="pythian 5" width="496" /></a> <br /><br />And if you think the blue painted columns are the architect’s whimsy, check this out…from the Met’s collection titled, <i>Kohl Tube in the Shape of a Column with a Palm Leaf Capital</i>, circa 1390–1352 B.C.<br /><br /><a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TVvpfXzmE7I/AAAAAAAABW8/r-WzI3FRpdY/s1600-h/vsgal15xz6%5B12%5D.jpg"><img alt="vsgal15xz6" border="0" height="524" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TVvpf7kw69I/AAAAAAAABXA/4xCRZusJnPo/vsgal15xz6_thumb%5B8%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="vsgal15xz6" width="343" /></a><br /><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><i>The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Purchase, Edward S. Harkness Gift, 1926</i></span> <br /><br />And lotuses detail the column’s base.<br /><br /><a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TVkf1zu98LI/AAAAAAAABXE/hbtuCybjNso/s1600-h/pythian%206%5B6%5D.jpg"><img alt="pythian 6" border="0" height="449" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TVkf2I2EwyI/AAAAAAAABXI/uMhvW-Xt8FE/pythian%206_thumb%5B4%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="pythian 6" width="343" /></a> <br /><br />Serpents flanking lotuses are in the shadow of a cavetto “cornice” (it’s not really a cornice since it’s only about 8 feet up).<br /><br /><a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TVkf2-dgTZI/AAAAAAAABMQ/bFzpBfY9yww/s1600-h/pythian%207%5B5%5D.jpg"><img alt="pythian 7" border="0" height="386" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TVkf3rrr4II/AAAAAAAABMU/2VzgczOSR-w/pythian%207_thumb%5B3%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="pythian 7" width="503" /></a> <br /><br />Egyptian columns are generally smooth, and spaced closer together than Classical (Greek and Roman) columns. This narrow opening is a side door to the right of the main entrance.<br /><br /><a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TVkf7SEELrI/AAAAAAAABMg/wRRZ2tkZy5I/s1600-h/Pythian%208%5B6%5D.jpg"><img alt="Pythian 8" border="0" height="406" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TVkgHPs-wJI/AAAAAAAABMk/JhmWSsbOFJA/Pythian%208_thumb%5B4%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="Pythian 8" width="503" /></a> <br /><br />More close-ups on details from the above image show…<br /><br />Cavetto “cornice” containing the solar disk, flanked by two snakes, just as on the Temple of Dendur. <br /><br /><a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TVkgHvXPZ1I/AAAAAAAABMo/IaGShazd-zk/s1600-h/Pythian%2088%5B4%5D.jpg"><img alt="Pythian 88" border="0" height="184" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TVkgIH2ZiSI/AAAAAAAABMs/Wo8jo9s3SwM/Pythian%2088_thumb%5B2%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="Pythian 88" width="541" /></a> <br /><br />…lotuses...<br /><br /><a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TVkgIpGhfTI/AAAAAAAABMw/GxzqL_hc2yY/s1600-h/Pythian%209%5B4%5D.jpg"><img alt="Pythian 9" border="0" height="376" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TVkgJZ5nGAI/AAAAAAAABM0/hH0vNeOPhLo/Pythian%209_thumb%5B2%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="Pythian 9" width="522" /></a> <br /><br />…and what appear to be lotuses at the base of the columns, but maybe papyrus.<br /><br /><a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TVkgKB2ZdzI/AAAAAAAABM4/mZaT_GihlSQ/s1600-h/pythian%2010%5B5%5D.jpg"><img alt="pythian 10" border="0" height="377" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TVkgK3pKpxI/AAAAAAAABM8/Ybil1MuQcu4/pythian%2010_thumb%5B3%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="pythian 10" width="493" /></a> <br /><br />Even the small fence is in the program, representing the Nile…<br /><br /><a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TVkgLsHEuVI/AAAAAAAABNA/8wj4zDHncPE/s1600-h/IMG_1917i%5B5%5D.jpg"><img alt="IMG_1917i" border="0" height="207" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TVkgMF3PJDI/AAAAAAAABNE/oFECyZc1YnQ/IMG_1917i_thumb%5B3%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="IMG_1917i" width="491" /></a> <br /><br />In the lobby of the Pythian…Palm capital with bands. <br /><br /><a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TVkgMsRrzBI/AAAAAAAABNI/PhrMoxTcBK4/s1600-h/Pythian%2015%5B6%5D.jpg"><img alt="Pythian 15" border="0" height="451" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TVkgNL05-vI/AAAAAAAABNM/yWC_UsZkKAY/Pythian%2015_thumb%5B4%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="Pythian 15" width="451" /></a> <br /><br />Lotuses and serpents adorn the shaft.&nbsp; Bundled papyrus above them?<br /><br /><a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TVkgO4VN9AI/AAAAAAAABNQ/eH4DPuGbtx0/s1600-h/pythian%2014%5B5%5D.jpg"><img alt="pythian 14" border="0" height="705" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TVkgP_KwjDI/AAAAAAAABNU/ie18I7n3i8A/pythian%2014_thumb%5B3%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="pythian 14" width="445" /></a> <br /><br />And here’s an upper floor detail invisible from street level.<br /><br /><a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TVkfrbq14_I/AAAAAAAABXU/GdKpVY5cfCM/s1600-h/IMG_19322%5B7%5D.jpg"><img alt="IMG_19322" border="0" height="637" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TVkfwcQiOdI/AAAAAAAABXc/p8oTI-rYpLI/IMG_19322_thumb%5B5%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="IMG_19322" width="440" /></a><br /><br />And Pharaoh sits on an upper floor, looking downtown…<br /><br /><a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TVkgQlYLZvI/AAAAAAAABNY/AOlyuSp2K3Y/s1600-h/Pythian%2016%5B4%5D.jpg"><img alt="Pythian 16" border="0" height="332" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TVkgRN7cSyI/AAAAAAAABNc/YaPs9q5t28A/Pythian%2016_thumb%5B2%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="Pythian 16" width="444" /></a> <br /><br />This Pharaoh sits on display in the Met.<br /><br /><a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TVkgRhHtggI/AAAAAAAABXk/wZb-cMVjrDU/s1600-h/muse%204%5B5%5D.jpg"><img alt="muse 4" border="0" height="521" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TVkgSDTieWI/AAAAAAAABXs/p0Y_uR3MF4w/muse%204_thumb%5B3%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="muse 4" width="442" /></a> <br /><br /><b>The Alexandria</b> at 201 West 72th Street (Frank Williams &amp; Associates, 1991) is prominently sited on the corner of Broadway just south of the Ansonia and has many papyrus, palm and other Egyptian-inspired motifs in its facade.&nbsp; The water tower encasement has a stylized papyrus or palm motif. (This is the building John Gosselin moved into.)<br /><br /><a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TVkfiPOSKNI/AAAAAAAABKk/htRTm8A744c/s1600-h/Alexandria%204%5B14%5D.jpg"><img alt="Alexandria 4" border="0" height="382" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TVkfjGwMr6I/AAAAAAAABKo/ATJ5RbphTfE/Alexandria%204_thumb%5B8%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="Alexandria 4" width="500" /></a> <br /><br />Stylized lotus blossom and papyrus shoots serve as pilasters around the water tank and on the upper floors...<br /><br /><a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TVkfjwg0jbI/AAAAAAAABKs/JLcMpV31S40/s1600-h/Alexandria%202%5B3%5D.jpg"><img alt="Alexandria 2" border="0" height="174" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TVkfkBo_KgI/AAAAAAAABKw/FajJJ08PDls/Alexandria%202_thumb%5B1%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="Alexandria 2" width="240" /></a> <a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TVkflf5Ne-I/AAAAAAAABK0/gLOwRXppvr0/s1600-h/Alexandria%201%5B3%5D.jpg"><img alt="Alexandria 1" border="0" height="174" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TVkfmUgx7wI/AAAAAAAABK4/EEkzEwarlO4/Alexandria%201_thumb%5B1%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="Alexandria 1" width="240" /></a> <br /><br />…as well as below…<br /><br /><a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TVkfm8zjuwI/AAAAAAAABK8/1aLStUmB1oA/s1600-h/Alexandria%203%5B7%5D.jpg"><img alt="Alexandria 3" border="0" height="202" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TVkfnDL11mI/AAAAAAAABLA/Qqd6fYaL41c/Alexandria%203_thumb%5B5%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="Alexandria 3" width="277" /></a>&nbsp;<a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TVkfngoRiKI/AAAAAAAABLE/mSpsQNWzNGM/s1600-h/ALexandria%206%5B5%5D.jpg"><img alt="ALexandria 6" border="0" height="199" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TVkfoCbrcqI/AAAAAAAABLI/ENlhJepIjUA/ALexandria%206_thumb%5B3%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="ALexandria 6" width="210" /></a> <br /><br />And lastly, sometime in the not-to-distant future you’ll be able to see this pyramid-inspired design, planned for West 57th Street between 11th and 12th Avenues.&nbsp; The architect is <a href="http://www.big.dk/projects/w57/">Bjarke Ingels</a>.<br /><br /><a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TVkglRQgeVI/AAAAAAAABPo/IlFftKUIsHQ/s1600-h/2011_2_pyramid%5B7%5D.jpg"><img alt="2011_2_pyramid" border="0" height="380" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TVkglyg6yQI/AAAAAAAABPs/87uW0GWIFGw/2011_2_pyramid_thumb%5B5%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="2011_2_pyramid" width="452" /></a> <br /><br />Percy Shelley’s <i>Ozymandias</i> is one of my favorite poems and most apt for the time.&nbsp; It’s about the power of Pharaoh, and in particular Ramses II.&nbsp; The message is that no matter how wide-reaching or how firm the Pharaoh’s grip, there is one thing that will always ensure an end to Pharaoh’s autocratic rule…time (and Twitter?).<br /><blockquote>I met a traveler from an antique land <br />Who said: Two vast and trunkless legs of stone <br />Stand in the desert. Near them, on the sand, <br />Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown, <br />And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command, <br />Tell that its sculptor well those passions read <br />Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things, <br />The hand that mocked them, and the heart that fed; <br />And on the pedestal these words appear: <br />“My name is Ozymandias, king of kings: <br />Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!” <br />Nothing beside remains. Round the decay <br />Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare <br />The lone and level sands stretch far away.</blockquote>&nbsp;<a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TVkgpM86yvI/AAAAAAAABP8/TheEj6wBYwE/s1600-h/muse%2018%5B11%5D.jpg"><img alt="muse 18" border="0" height="411" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TVkgqCRgn7I/AAAAAAAABQA/sEnTYRr-AwQ/muse%2018_thumb%5B9%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="muse 18" width="509" /></a><a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TVkgqe0D4nI/AAAAAAAABQE/FRJfMzt2V3M/s1600-h/Pythian%2017%5B9%5D.jpg"><img alt="Pythian 17" border="0" height="923" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TVkgrCxL8NI/AAAAAAAABQI/bu_P8wludNk/Pythian%2017_thumb%5B7%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="Pythian 17" width="513" /></a><br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-lo-QwZNXXGM/TXteQel5mmI/AAAAAAAABmw/zf0rim-250k/s1600/IMG_1954.JPG" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" height="640" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-lo-QwZNXXGM/TXteQel5mmI/AAAAAAAABmw/zf0rim-250k/s640/IMG_1954.JPG" width="480" /></a></div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/ManhattanUnlocked/~4/vJ-uZlKvGKg" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>Robert Amellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06084801755976271616noreply@blogger.com2http://manhattanunlocked.blogspot.com/2011/02/manhattan-on-nile.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2681192941667483351.post-63727996360578820282011-02-08T11:33:00.014-05:002011-05-01T23:00:19.136-04:00The Truth about Broadway—and Manhattan’s Water BorderThe most startling fact I ever learned about Broadway, that most famous street of culture and entertainment, and age-old Native American path, was that for much of history, just above City Hall, it ended at a swamp.&nbsp; <br /><br />People traveled the Bowery to get in and out of town during the Dutch and English days. The Bowery, Dutch for “farm” (or “road to the farm”), is how Peter Stuyvesant went to his uptown estate (around 15th Street), and it's the route George Washington took on Evacuation Day in 1784 to see the British off. <br /><br />Below is the Maerschalck Plan from 1754, zooming in on the area we’re interested in. Broadway is the wide road that ends at what looks like an upright mailbox flag.&nbsp; The "flag staff" was a short road to Anthony Rutgers' farm (one of them), and the square “flag” was a small patch of high ground surrounded by marsh.&nbsp; The land was granted to Rutgers by King George II, and it was just west of a 70 acre-wide fresh water pond called the Collect. On the other side of the Collect (where the heart of today's Chinatown is located) were slaughterhouses, butchers and tanners (the people who prepared hides).&nbsp; <br /><br /><i>Stokes Iconography </i>(v.3 p. 540) says, <br /><blockquote>In 1730 Anthony Rutgers, who already owned the land west of the Collect, including the "Kolchhook," petitioned for a grant of the swamp and pond, which was given him, in 1733, on condition that he drain off the swamp within a year's time. This was accomplished so successfully that the tanners about the pond complained that the water was lowered so as to interfere with their supply, and Rutgers was ordered to close up the drain for thirty feet from the Collect. The swamp lands were, however, drained and turned into meadows.</blockquote><a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TVCQwj8UczI/AAAAAAAABCI/Ak9NhKAkeGM/s1600-h/plate34v.1i5.jpg"><img alt="plate 34, v. 1i" border="0" height="672" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TVCQyFzy3kI/AAAAAAAABCM/rYcGdROPSx0/plate34v.1i_thumb3.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="plate 34, v. 1i" width="496" /></a><br /><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><b>Stokes, I. N. Phelps</b> <i>The iconography of Manhattan Island, 1498-1909 </i>New York : Robert H. Dodd, 1915-1928.Electronic reproduction. v. 1-4. New York, N.Y. : </span><a href="http://www.columbia.edu/cu/lweb/digital/collections/cul/texts/ldpd_5800727_001/citation.html#"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">Columbia University</span></a><span style="font-size: xx-small;"> Libraries, 2008. JPEG use copy available via the World Wide Web. Master copy stored locally on [74] DVDs#: ldpd_5800727_001 01-13 ; ldpd_5800727_002 01-19 ; ldpd_5800727_003 01-16 ; ldpd_5800727_004 01-16.. <i>Columbia University Libraries <a href="http://www.columbia.edu/cu/lweb/digital/collections/cul/texts/ldpd_5800727_001/citation.html#">Electronic Books</a>.</i> 2006.&nbsp; Vol 1,&nbsp; pl 34.</span><br /><br />Here’s the same map with some highlighted details. The <b>yellow line</b> is Broadway and the <b>green triangle</b> is today’s City Hall Park (known as The Commons back in 1754—City Hall was on Wall Street at the time).&nbsp; The <b>white dots </b>show the “High Road to Boston” (or the Bowery, which it directly fed into it).&nbsp; The <b>purple stripes</b> to the left of Collect Pond were the marsh that Rutgers turned into meadow (which nonetheless flooded whenever it rained).&nbsp; The area was named Lispenard’s Meadow after Leonard Lispenard, who married Anthony Rutgers' daughter, Alice. Three streets: Leonard, Anthony (now Worth) and Thomas were all named for Lispenard's sons (though some accounts say his grandsons).&nbsp; For reference, the <b>black outline </b>shows the World Trade Center site.<br /><br /><a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TVCQy3T0vEI/AAAAAAAABCQ/zEQjAMKIh4E/s1600-h/plate%2034%2C%20v.%201i2%5B18%5D.jpg"><img alt="plate 34, v. 1i2" border="0" height="673" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TVCQ0Abak7I/AAAAAAAABCU/mxP2ZwQ2t54/plate%2034%2C%20v.%201i2_thumb%5B14%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="plate 34, v. 1i2" width="496" /></a> <br /><br />Not only did Broadway end just above The Commons, it wasn't even the main route to the Bowery.&nbsp; The <b>roads in blue</b> show, from left to right: Broad Street, William Street and Pearl Street.&nbsp; All three crossed Wall Street (in <b>green</b>), and led more directly to the Bowery.&nbsp; <br /><br />In 1765, Anthony Rutgers' mansion (in the “mailbox flag”) became the Ranelagh pleasure garden, where citizens came to escape the downtown city, enjoy fireworks and take in the beautiful landscaped gardens. (There would actually be a few pleasure gardens by that same name). <br /><br />Here's near the spot today, on the high ground surrounded by the sometime-swamp-sometime-meadow.&nbsp; The view is looking south on Broadway, a few blocks north of City Hall, with some buildings identified.&nbsp; Here, Broadway divides TriBeCa to the west (right side) and the Civic Center/Court District to the east (left side). <br />&nbsp;<a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TVCQ053bF0I/AAAAAAAABCY/kuBo1F5r3WA/s1600-h/thomas%202i2%5B4%5D.jpg"><img alt="thomas 2i2" border="0" height="441" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TVCQ28eAb-I/AAAAAAAABCg/3Dh8ODD8rWY/thomas%202i2_thumb%5B2%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="thomas 2i2" width="508" /></a><br /><i><br />Sidenote:</i> What I love most about Manhattan is how history layers itself over an area, leaving calling cards in the building facades from different eras. Above are:&nbsp; AT Stewart’s Marble Palace, the country’s very first "department store” built in 1846 (<i>added 3/8/2011</i>: Actually, the Marble Palace was more of a glorified dry goods' store. It may be a question of when does a sapling become a tree, but <i>The Historical Atlas of New York City</i> says that "by the time of Macy's death in 1877 his store was New York's first fully-fledged department store."); the Woolworth Building, 1913 (and the tallest building in the world until 1928), constructed when lower Manhattan was transforming into the nation's corporate command center; and federal buildings for Homeland Security, Immigration, etc, built in the last 40 years.&nbsp; <br /><br />But in the 1700s, before Stewart, Woolworth and Homeland Security, when this was a suburb of the city (barely a mile downtown), Rutgers' farm, and later the Ranelagh Gardens, were just down Thomas Street to the right.&nbsp; When an eastern section of Federal Plaza (to the left) was built in the 1990s, contractors uncovered the African American Burial Ground from the 1600-1700s. The burial grounds must have been evident, and perhaps even still in use, when Anthony Rutgers, literally across the street, was just starting his farm.<br /><br />Here’s another view of the area from the Montresor map of 1766 (a year after Rutger’s farm became Ranelagh’s garden).&nbsp; It was made for military purposes--the English side. You can see the gardens, and you can barely discern the line of the “mailbox flag” from the previous map. But this map shows clearly how Broadway dead-ended just beyond City Hall. <br /><br /><a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TVCQ3l2xryI/AAAAAAAABCk/5kvFP3gZgks/s1600-h/plate40vi4.jpg"><img alt="plate 40, vi" border="0" height="545" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TVCQ4mSDrfI/AAAAAAAABCo/C8iyS58vjYo/plate40vi_thumb2.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="plate 40, vi" width="493" /></a><br /><span style="font-size: small;"><i><span style="font-size: xx-small;">Stokes. Vol 1, pl 40.</span></i></span><br /><br />And the Collect Pond drained in the opposite direction too, making a virtual border of water about two miles north from the tip of the island. The words in the black circle at the right read: “This overflow is constantly filling up in order to build on.”<br /><br /><a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TVCQ5RWCWlI/AAAAAAAABCs/6RU6MuG7NJc/s1600-h/plate%2040%2C%20vi2%5B9%5D.jpg"><img alt="plate 40, vi2" border="0" height="551" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TVCQ6VWxBtI/AAAAAAAABCw/frx6OHe4-gQ/plate%2040%2C%20vi2_thumb%5B5%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="plate 40, vi2" width="498" /></a> <br /><br />Edwin Burrows and Mike Wallace's <i>Gotham</i> describes the scene in the early 1800s this way (p. 359):<br /><blockquote>Landed and mercantile interests meanwhile complained that runoffs from the pond fed a stretch of marshes and swamps between modern Chambers and Canal that nearly cut the island in two, blocking the northward flow of population.&nbsp; One outlet, a sluggish stream, ran along modern Canal Street before losing itself in the swampy wooded salt marshes known as Lispenard’s Meadow, where for decades gentlemen had taken guns and dogs to shoot woodcock and snipe.&nbsp; To the southeast, a second outlet ran through a smaller tidal marsh, still known as “the Swamp,” and along the course of Roosevelt Street, a foul muddy alley, to the East River.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </blockquote>Legend has it that after a downpour Native American could canoe from the East River to the Hudson, right across this channel. And in winter, if the Hudson froze, young boys would ice skate from the East River to the Hudson, and even up the Hudson into Greenwich Village by way of Minetta Brook.<br /><br />Here’s another view of the area using the Viele map, showing 1600s terrain beneath modern streets. The <b>green lines</b> show Broadway and Canal Street, crossing at a narrow section of Lispenard's Meadow (outlined in <b>yellow</b>). The <b>red roads</b> show William and Pearl Streets leading to the Bowery (also in red), the quickest, easiest way in and out of town. <br /><br /><a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TVCQ7Ojgl_I/AAAAAAAABC0/0LUAE1p3mSY/s1600-h/iii5%5B1%5D.jpg"><img alt="iii5" border="0" height="589" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TVCQ8nQ6duI/AAAAAAAABC4/R8nTq82FAh0/iii5_thumb.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="iii5" width="685" /></a><br /><br />Below are the <i>traditional </i>neighborhoods overlaying the area on the Viele map.&nbsp; “Traditional” because over the past decades Chinatown has expanded to overtake much of Little Italy and the Jewish Lower East Side.&nbsp; Another important historic district was Five Points, which would have been centered where the blue line crosses Worth Street (under the word “District”).&nbsp; <br /><br /><a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TVCQ9jJWbdI/AAAAAAAABC8/H_Ti6MBDUS4/s1600-h/iii61%5B2%5D.jpg"><img alt="iii61" border="0" height="521" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TVCQ-xLQ9aI/AAAAAAAABDA/s7rnbCkNtqU/iii61_thumb%5B1%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="iii61" width="621" /></a><br /><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><i>Courtesy of http://kottke.org</i></span><br /><br />Now for the all important crossing of Broadway beyond Canal Street as a main street (it had been a wagon road that could be used when it wasn't flooded).&nbsp; Stephen Jenkins, in <i>The World’s Greatest Street (The Story of Broadway),</i> 1911, describes the development of Broadway in this part of town. It begins with a description of work being done adjacent City Hall Park.&nbsp; <i>Note:</i> Anthony Street is today’s Worth Street. (p. 134)<br /><br /><a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TVCQ_vVYjlI/AAAAAAAABDE/5DZDEc8skt0/s1600-h/expansion%20of%20Canal%5B5%5D.png"><img alt="expansion of Canal" border="0" height="347" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TVCRAW0jjsI/AAAAAAAABDI/KpsDYv02eyA/expansion%20of%20Canal_thumb%5B3%5D.png?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="expansion of Canal" width="505" /></a> <br /><br />(p. 152)<br /><br /><a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TVCRAqmaQII/AAAAAAAABDM/T5f3bvKpcwY/s1600-h/booksi%5B3%5D.png"><img alt="booksi" border="0" height="149" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TVCRBUCCIFI/AAAAAAAABDQ/t74NS1NFuTg/booksi_thumb%5B1%5D.png?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="booksi" width="523" /></a> <br /><br /><a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TVCRB0mn04I/AAAAAAAABDU/Ndj1qytcLgc/s1600-h/close%20uo%20canal%5B5%5D.jpg"><img alt="close uo canal" border="0" height="612" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TVCRC4yWl4I/AAAAAAAABDY/mp2TSZcH6Lg/close%20uo%20canal_thumb%5B3%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="close uo canal" width="494" /></a> <br /><br /><i>(Note there was no Thomas Street between Duane and Worth (Anthony) when the Viele map was made in 1865, which begs the question, did it disappear and return? Or did someone, so many years later, think to name it for a Rutger's family member?)</i><br /><br />You can still see this old terrain in the streets today! <br /><br />This is looking east along Leonard Street from Broadway (right on the map above, down hill to the Collect Pond). The scaffolding shows the decline halfway down the street, just where the Viele map says it should be.&nbsp; At the bottom of the small hill is the Court District (remember when Martha Stewart and Rosie O'Donnell went to court?).&nbsp; The Court District was built over the Collect Pond--and Five Points.<i><br /></i><br /><a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TVCRDlkVg2I/AAAAAAAABDc/9XmmuyPwj3w/s1600-h/Leonard%20Street%20looking%20east%20from%20Broadwayi%5B3%5D.jpg"><img alt="Leonard Street looking east from Broadwayi" border="0" height="436" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TVCREXrertI/AAAAAAAABDg/acxSqvlnjgA/Leonard%20Street%20looking%20east%20from%20Broadwayi_thumb%5B1%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="Leonard Street looking east from Broadwayi" width="502" /></a> <br /><br />Here’s the opposite direction looking down Leonard Street from Broadway, the edge of TriBeCa.&nbsp; Across a mini-plateau to a slighter decline a block ahead. <br /><br /><a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TVCRE28LqSI/AAAAAAAABDk/a8rQj_oKE4U/s1600-h/Leonard%5B4%5D.jpg"><img alt="Leonard" border="0" height="441" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TVCRFsKyGMI/AAAAAAAABDo/VjzN4CrDugM/Leonard_thumb%5B2%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="Leonard" width="508" /></a> <br /><br />A few blocks north on Broadway there was literally a canal--a ditch--running down the center of Canal Street until the mid 1800s, when it was finally covered over.&nbsp; The bridge in the image below is still there, just a few feet under the asphalt! It’s speculated that the British built the bridge during the Revolutionary War; <i>Stokes </i>could not find any records of it actually being built by colonists or Americans! <br /><br />The first image is from <i>Stokes</i>, which estimates the date as 1812.&nbsp; The second is from <i>Valentine's Manuel, 1857 </i>(not the year of the image)<i>. </i>It's kind of cool to see two different versions of the same thing. <br /><br /><a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TVCRGaOc3PI/AAAAAAAABDs/aX9Cp57fBD0/s1600-h/canalstreetbridgeiii5.jpg"><img alt="canal street bridge iii" border="0" height="419" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TVCRHEXyX-I/AAAAAAAABDw/KcnnEzIoG3Q/canalstreetbridgeiii_thumb3.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="canal street bridge iii" width="501" /></a> <br /><br /><a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TVCRHre27vI/AAAAAAAABD0/nKsC7uugACE/s1600-h/Valentine%27s%20manuel%201857i%5B4%5D.jpg"><img alt="Valentine's manuel 1857i" border="0" height="373" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TVCRIPckIBI/AAAAAAAABD4/xStYZGTew8Y/Valentine%27s%20manuel%201857i_thumb%5B2%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="Valentine's manuel 1857i" width="499" /></a> <br /><br />There were actually two roads along Canal Street, one on either side of the ditch. <br /><br /><a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TVCRJCr58QI/AAAAAAAABD8/Qcbh3tW-Wg0/s1600-h/CanalStreetBridge25.jpg"><img alt="Canal Street Bridge 2" border="0" height="414" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TVCRJ4DP8jI/AAAAAAAABEA/UW7qWjfXjas/CanalStreetBridge2_thumb3.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="Canal Street Bridge 2" width="495" /></a> <br /><br />Below is the southwest corner of Broadway and Canal in 1928, showing the National City Bank of New York. (Same era as the Woolworth Building--the city as corporate command center). The photographer is across Broadway; Lispinard Street is to the left of the bank, Canal Street is to the right (it's a very short block). <br /><br /><a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TVCRKSLtr8I/AAAAAAAABEE/SXvvL9RyNqI/s1600-h/MNY360301928NAtionalCityBankbranch4.jpg"><img alt="MNY36030 1928 NAtional City Bank branch" border="0" height="398" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TVCRKwVpV5I/AAAAAAAABEI/QDCokvNbuX4/MNY360301928NAtionalCityBankbranch_t.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="MNY36030 1928 NAtional City Bank branch" width="500" /></a><br /><br />Spinning around and looking down Broadway today.<br /><br /><a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TVCRNnk2fsI/AAAAAAAABEU/mppG0wCzMyE/s1600-h/BroadwaylookingsouthacrossCanalii4.jpg"><img alt="Broadway looking south across Canalii" border="0" height="427" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TVCROFJwOjI/AAAAAAAABEc/m544yyhtEss/BroadwaylookingsouthacrossCanalii_th.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="Broadway looking south across Canalii" width="492" /></a> <br /><br />And from about the same angle as the drawings above.<br /><br /><a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TVCRPd5xf-I/AAAAAAAABEg/5n6U1ES9LCI/s1600-h/viewofstokespicii4.jpg"><img alt="view of stokes picii" border="0" height="419" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TVCRP1vA-bI/AAAAAAAABEk/hZToGfOGbMY/viewofstokespicii_thumb2.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="view of stokes picii" width="481" /></a> <br /><br />The facade of the National City Bank of New York would be about here…<br /><br /><a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TVCRQhhX7DI/AAAAAAAABEo/Nd8uJnhxoGE/s1600-h/canalstreetbridge35.jpg"><img alt="canal street bridge 3" border="0" height="413" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TVCRRQd7dEI/AAAAAAAABEs/kJ7_Ybjd5Gw/canalstreetbridge3_thumb3.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="canal street bridge 3" width="495" /></a><br /><br />Today, Canal Street links the Manhattan Bridge with the Holland Tunnel, that's why there's such a disproportianate amount of heavy industrial traffic along it--most are just passing through.&nbsp; It's a fascinating area, marking the boundaries of a number of neighborhoods.<br /><br />The Bowery has been so re-worked below Chinatown as to be effectively obliterated.&nbsp; A one-way road leading downtown, sunken beneath the Brooklyn Bridge ramps and running along One Police Plaza, approximates the old route, the red dotted line below.&nbsp; <br /><br />But that's how people moved in and out of town for about the first 200 years, before Broadway crossed the canal, and when a virtual border of water linked the East River and the Hudson across the island, above the population center below.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-8zoc4JworLs/TXOFFrEE66I/AAAAAAAABfg/rqOWJcOEqQo/s1600/today2.JPG" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" height="345" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-8zoc4JworLs/TXOFFrEE66I/AAAAAAAABfg/rqOWJcOEqQo/s400/today2.JPG" width="400" /></a></div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/ManhattanUnlocked/~4/PHxtuiMJVj8" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>Robert Amellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06084801755976271616noreply@blogger.com89http://manhattanunlocked.blogspot.com/2011/02/truth-about-broadwayand-manhattans.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2681192941667483351.post-34399366178122014632011-02-03T20:52:00.006-05:002011-03-12T03:29:40.121-05:00298 Grand Street, Then and NowJust a quick fun post. Going through the Museum of the City of New York’s archives I found this 1932 picture of 298 Grand Street.&nbsp; The Federal-style home below was already 100 years old at the time (they'd stopped building dormer windows around 1840).&nbsp; By 1932, this was in the heart of the Jewish Lower East side, and textiles were the major industry—it looks like Haddad’s is selling <i>Linens, Curtains, Bed Sets, Silk Underwear</i>.&nbsp; <br /><br />Most single family homes lasted just a few decades before becoming multiple family dwellings and/or businesses, such was the vortex-like growth of Manhattan’s population. <br /><br />You can see the tracks of the Second Avenue railroad in the street.&nbsp; Horse-drawn cars ran south on Allen Street, west along Grand Street (below), and turned north up Second Avenue.<br /><br /><a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TUtVLGinxiI/AAAAAAAABBo/48V4v5zlUOM/s1600-h/MNY80077%201932%20298%20Grand%20Sti%5B4%5D.jpg"><img alt="MNY80077 1932 298 Grand Sti" border="0" height="640" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TUtVMGwML6I/AAAAAAAABBs/aQVSax0IYyk/MNY80077%201932%20298%20Grand%20Sti_thumb%5B2%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border: 0px none; display: inline;" title="MNY80077 1932 298 Grand Sti" width="521" /></a><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>Museum of the City of New York</i></span><br /><br />And here it is today in the middle of Chinatown.&nbsp; All three buildings are still there, slightly modified.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-30G0ywoE6xw/TXODXFwr5lI/AAAAAAAABfY/FGgUrfFTvdU/s1600/298%2BGrand%2Btoday.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="345" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-30G0ywoE6xw/TXODXFwr5lI/AAAAAAAABfY/FGgUrfFTvdU/s400/298%2BGrand%2Btoday.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/ManhattanUnlocked/~4/5OJGPyhhQ4s" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>Robert Amellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06084801755976271616noreply@blogger.com10http://manhattanunlocked.blogspot.com/2011/02/298-grand-street-then-and-now.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2681192941667483351.post-23099271133458720252011-01-28T13:20:00.004-05:002012-05-07T22:14:04.036-04:00The Haymarket, Broadway & NoMad—and a Long Forgotten Street!There’s a strange part of town that’s in the middle of everywhere. In the 1990s it was the <i>counterfeit</i> garment district; and not just clothing, but it’s where they made the knock-off Gucci and Louis Vuitton bags until even <i>that </i>“industry” moved overseas.&nbsp; Today the area is a bizarre amalgam of third rate retailers, “wholesalers to the public,” and import/export trading companies: jewelry, low-end electronics, garments, accessories, perfumes, wigs, and otherwise “nuisance” businesses mainstream marketers avoid—what retailer would want to be near the hair or perfume markets?<br /><br />But what’s particularly interesting is that <i>this is Broadway;</i> and Broadway between Madison and Herald Squares—one would think such an area would be high-end residential and/or retail shopping.&nbsp; Think again; this is the current elephant in the room of Manhattan real estate.&nbsp; <br /><br /><a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TUL4RHIyo8I/AAAAAAAAA9M/_e7WA1MKGF4/s1600-h/nomad%5B5%5D.jpg"><img alt="nomad" border="0" height="430" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TUL4R9avLKI/AAAAAAAAA9Q/pxNfDcbTwDk/nomad_thumb%5B3%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="nomad" width="493" /></a> <br /><a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TUL4S5jeUyI/AAAAAAAAA9U/jAHPUred0Hg/s1600-h/nomadi%5B4%5D.jpg"><img alt="nomadi" border="0" height="431" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TUL4T90EbDI/AAAAAAAAA9Y/H55EXWZHfwM/nomadi_thumb%5B2%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="nomadi" width="496" /></a> <br /><a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TUL4UrmBpWI/AAAAAAAAA9c/gDROo2m6TvE/s1600-h/nomadii%5B4%5D.jpg"><img alt="nomadii" border="0" height="426" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TUL4Vev2RwI/AAAAAAAAA9g/s0J1G1uUlHQ/nomadii_thumb%5B2%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="nomadii" width="491" /></a> <br /><br />And indeed, this is the undistinguished heart of Manhattan’s newest acronym neighborhood NoMad (NOrth of MADison Square), a name suggested as far back as 1991! But what’s integral to people <i>using </i>a new name for a neighborhood is that people actually <i>go there</i>, and that’s what’s happening now. <br /><br />This section of Broadway has a fascinating history as an “other side of the tracks” kind of divide.&nbsp; In the Gilded Age of the 1880s and 90s, Fifth Avenue and Broadway were lined with fine hotels, theaters and restaurants. And literally across Broadway was the old Haymarket, the most notorious dance hall/brothel in the Tenderloin.<br /><br />The Tenderloin was a riotous red light district that flourished for some 40 years in between the Civil War and WWI.&nbsp; The boundaries vary wildly from source to source, and there were viable residential communities within its boundaries.&nbsp; But here is how <i>The Encyclopedia of New York City</i>, by Kenneth Jackson, defines the Tenderloin…<br /><blockquote>A nightclub district in Manhattan during the 1880s, bounded to the north by 42nd Street, to the east by 5th Avenue, to the south by 24th Street, and to the west by 7th Avenue.&nbsp; The name refers to extortion payments made to the police by legitimate and illegitimate businesses in the area during the heyday of Tammany Hall. Known as Satan’s Circus by reformers, the district contained the greatest concentration of saloons, brothels, gambling parlors, dance halls, and “clip joints” in the city. It is now the site of the Empire State Building, the garment district, and Herald Square. </blockquote>Below are those boundaries in yellow, along with the boundaries of today’s NoMad, in green.&nbsp; The Haymarket, which we’ll get to in a bit, is the red dot in the uppermost left corner of NoMad. <br /><br /><a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TUL4WTLp0GI/AAAAAAAAA9k/395ryTtknqQ/s1600-h/FINAL201%5B11%5D.jpg"><img alt="FINAL201" border="0" height="435" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TUL4Xsi_XSI/AAAAAAAAA9o/aRV7P7V0ky8/FINAL201_thumb%5B9%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="FINAL201" width="497" /></a> <br /><br />A central feature of both the Tenderloin and Nomad is Broadway slicing its way from Madison to Herald Squares.&nbsp; During the Tenderloin days this was the heart of the theater district with upscale hotels and restaurants extending up and down Broadway.&nbsp; Though none of the theaters exist today (as far as I can determine), many of the old hotels do! Perhaps the most handsomely restored is the Gilsey House, on the northeast corner of 29th and Broadway.<br /><br />The Gilsey House was one of the first hotels to come to the area. Built between 1869-71, it was a favorite haunt of Oscar Wilde and Diamond “Jim” Brady.&nbsp; Today it’s a co-op (a rare example of high end residential in the neighborhood).&nbsp; And yes, this is the exact same spot as the pictures above! <br /><br /><a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TUL4YH4QNGI/AAAAAAAAA9s/JMFogjVm520/s1600-h/gilsey%20house%5B8%5D.jpg"><img alt="gilsey house" border="0" height="520" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TUL4ZOhq41I/AAAAAAAAA9w/lBn4fBrMXaQ/gilsey%20house_thumb%5B4%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="gilsey house" width="365" /></a><i><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br />Courtesy of Business Conservation Associates, Inc.</span></i><br /><br />But the recent pioneer to the neighborhood, and what’s giving NoMad traction, is the Ace Hotel.&nbsp; In 2009 the Ace Hotel took over the old Breslin Hotel, which went up in 1904 on the southeast corner of 29th and Broadway, across the street from the Gilsey House. <br /><br />Here they are, in the midst of the garment accessory, perfume and hair district. The vantage point is looking <span class="Apple-style-span" style="text-decoration: line-through;">west</span>&nbsp;&nbsp;east towards Broadway on 29th Street.&nbsp; in the 1880s and 90s this street in particular was known for its brothels; the Haymarket was one block north.<br /><br /><a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TUL4acbc_TI/AAAAAAAAA90/nGdA9i55Pxw/s1600-h/gilsey-breslinii%5B5%5D.jpg"><img alt="gilsey-breslinii" border="0" height="431" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TUL4azOIC6I/AAAAAAAAA94/xsmhobRa_8A/gilsey-breslinii_thumb%5B3%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="gilsey-breslinii" width="495" /></a> <br /><br />The Breslin Hotel, and indeed the entire district, went through an 80 year rough patch from which it’s only now starting to recover. Though a fine hotel when it opened, the Breslin deteriorated into a welfare hotel and low income apartment rentals before the Ace took over.&nbsp; The first thing any new acronym neighborhood must do is establish good restaurants, which the Ace has done with the John Dory (now one of the city’s top oyster bars), and the Breslin Bar and Grill.&nbsp; And new restaurants seem to be opening up in the area every week.&nbsp; The Eventi Hotel recently opened on 30th Street and 6th Avenue (across from the Haymarket); and over on Fifth Avenue this stretch is once again hopping with new high-end eateries.&nbsp; <br /><br />During the Tenderloin days, though, brothels and saloons with names like the Star and Garter, Buckingham Palace, the Bohemia, the Tivoli, and Old Alhambra were clustered down side streets west of Broadway.&nbsp; According to Luc Sante’s engrossing <i>Low Life</i>,<br /><blockquote>As time went by the area became stratified: Twenty-ninth was the street of whorehouses, Twenty-eighth stood for high-end gambling, and Twenty-seventh for the low end. There were saloons on every corner, each with a Ladies’ Entrance, and houses of assignation (meaning, in current parlance, hot-sheet hotels) on every block. </blockquote>And at its center was the Haymarket, the most notorious “dance hall” in the most notorious district. Below is John Sloan’s painting, <i>The Haymarket</i> from 1907, in its waning years. The entrance was on the east side of 6th Avenue, south of 30th Street. The elevated train ran just overhead.<br /><br /><a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TTh1jmK_8nI/AAAAAAAAA5k/aFZwrfKim1Q/s1600-h/sloani4.jpg"><img alt="sloani" border="0" height="401" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TTh1kVOxEQI/AAAAAAAAA5o/IK5i10zYTHE/sloani_thumb2.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="sloani" width="484" /></a><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i><br />The Haymarket</i>, John Sloan, 1907</span><br /><br />And the Haymarket was, like the Tenderloin, in the middle of <i>everything</i>. The map below breaks down the immediate vicinity. <br /><br />The short <b>gray line</b> at the bottom shows the southern boundary of the Tenderloin on 23rd Street (below it was Chelsea to the left with the Ladies’ Mile Shopping district directly beneath). The extensive <b>purple lines</b> at the left show Hell’s Kitchen, bordering 8th Avenue (much of it is considered Chelsea today).&nbsp; There was a viable African American district, indicated by the <b>green lines</b>, that straddled 7th Avenue, half in/half out of the Tenderloin. This was the African American community that staked out Harlem in the 1910s when Penn Station was built and they had to re-locate.&nbsp; The <b>blue lines</b> show the heaviest concentration of brothels, saloons and gambling halls, all west of Broadway.&nbsp; The <b>yellow lines</b> show Fifth Avenue and Broadway, which were ritzy streets of theaters, fine hotels and shopping.&nbsp; The single, slanted <b>red line</b> was the Haymarket—smack in the middle. The Gilsey House and the Breslin (Ace) Hotels are the <b>pink dots,</b> on the east side of Broadway.<br /><br /><br /><a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TUL4czdsTTI/AAAAAAAAA98/43GbgR1xaEw/s1600-h/mapFINALi11%5B13%5D.jpg"><img alt="mapFINALi11" border="0" height="458" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TUL4eDJdbEI/AAAAAAAAA-A/qcpNDJaMurA/mapFINALi11_thumb%5B9%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="mapFINALi11" width="525" /></a> <br />During the Tenderloin years Madison Square was the height of society on a global scale. Here’s the opening page of a booklet from 1894, <i>A Historical Sketch of Madison Square</i>, by Morris Benjamin.&nbsp; It describes the area, which was a mere 7-10 minute walk from the Tenderloin and the Haymarket.&nbsp; (An important note, between 1890-97 the Haymarket had changed hands and for a while was, of all things, a museum.)<br /><br /><a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TTh1iEcUN0I/AAAAAAAAA5c/YlNv6CmAWd0/s1600-h/extractii1.jpg"><img alt="extractii" border="0" height="662" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TTh1iyQHzzI/AAAAAAAAA5g/15rJ641R55k/extractii_thumb.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="extractii" width="464" /></a><br /><br />But aside from the 7 year respite, the Haymarket dance hall lasted from 1873 until 1911.&nbsp; By all accounts the Haymarket was on 6th Avenue, but I found this otherwise dry write-up from the <i>New York Times</i> about the sale of the property.&nbsp; It provides an intriguing piece of information in the second paragraph—the Haymarket’s property line. <br /><br />March 4, 1911 <i>New York Times.&nbsp; </i><br /><br /><a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TTh1lSVYNkI/AAAAAAAAA5s/oqSg4OxXiNQ/s1600-h/4MArch41911nytimes2.png"><img alt="4 MArch 4 1911 nytimes" border="0" height="154" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TTh1mRGoiFI/AAAAAAAAA5w/-5WdgeIVn2Q/4MArch41911nytimes_thumb2.png?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: block; float: none; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" title="4 MArch 4 1911 nytimes" width="438" /></a><a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TTh1m1q1GjI/AAAAAAAAA50/t5zHl6LDwKg/s1600-h/5Therealestatemarket2.png"><img alt="5 The realestate market" border="0" height="499" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TTh1nhl6jyI/AAAAAAAAA54/pUiZPsfyzF0/5Therealestatemarket_thumb2.png?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: block; float: none; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" title="5 The realestate market" width="387" /></a> <br />So here’s the the Haymarket with a few other landmarks identified, including the Ace Hotel.<br /><br /><a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TUL4fHtkLbI/AAAAAAAAA-E/eCRkkfTey8c/s1600-h/1ii%5B9%5D.jpg"><img alt="1ii" border="0" height="392" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TUL4ghyeJtI/AAAAAAAAA-I/1YcSADjM4_Y/1ii_thumb%5B5%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="1ii" width="451" /></a> <br /><br />What was striking were the dimensions—not a typical “grid” property with 15’ on Broadway and 68’ feet on 6th Avenue! So of course I Googled it, and there it was…<br /><br /><a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TTh1ooUYfOI/AAAAAAAAA-M/RD6ywITlNDw/s1600-h/Haymarket%20ii.jpg"><img alt="Haymarket ii" border="0" height="427" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TTh1pVUq7wI/AAAAAAAAA-Q/fYex9mCIZ3U/Haymarket%20ii_thumb.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="Haymarket ii" width="490" /></a><br /><br />The property line of the old Haymarket is very much discernible today!<br /><br /><a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TTh1qY8sicI/AAAAAAAAA-c/X_X3CAAVf9U/s1600-h/Haymarketii%5B1%5D.jpg"><img alt="Haymarketii" border="0" height="427" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TTh1rDwLclI/AAAAAAAAA-g/Sl_fw_1ZlSE/Haymarketii_thumb.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="Haymarketii" width="491" /></a><br /><br />The property seems to be one large parking lot (see all the cars), but the cars near the yellow line are actually on the roof of a one-story building…<br /><br /><a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TTh1wnJsEXI/AAAAAAAAA-o/kktvdtNY3tM/s1600-h/Haymarket%20iii.jpg"><img alt="Haymarket iii" border="0" height="436" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TTh1xY-pqbI/AAAAAAAAA-w/R8zDHMBxlqc/Haymarket%20iii_thumb.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="Haymarket iii" width="500" /></a><br /><br />Here’s the southeast corner of 6th Avenue and 30th Street (looking at the yellow line in the above picture). In John Sloan’s painting, the entrance to the Haymarket would have been to the far right, past the tree, at the end of the burgundy awning.&nbsp; The pale patch of wall in the middle of the angled building is the correct height for the Haymarket (three stories), but further research is needed to determine that for sure.&nbsp;&nbsp; <br /><br /><a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TTh1thdXqRI/AAAAAAAAA6U/nxy8VtF0rZk/s1600-h/IMG_0039i4.jpg"><img alt="IMG_0039i" border="0" height="330" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TTh1uP3n5nI/AAAAAAAAA6Y/Sw2go0GLE9Y/IMG_0039i_thumb2.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="IMG_0039i" width="506" /></a><br /><br />Looking farther along 30th Street towards Broadway.&nbsp; The middle of the block is a ground level parking lot, and would have been the heart of the Haymarket.<br /><br /><a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TTh1yJPQahI/AAAAAAAAA-8/Xiy02V1EdA8/s1600-h/IMG_0042%5B1%5D.jpg"><img alt="IMG_0042" border="0" height="384" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TTh1zNc7XzI/AAAAAAAAA_E/Zh6GOx16osY/IMG_0042_thumb.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="IMG_0042" width="501" /><br /><br /></a>At the end of West 30th Street (Broadway is to the left) this building was <i>not</i> part of the old Haymarket; it’s an industrial building from the 1920s.<br /><br /><a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TTh2GjqPAWI/AAAAAAAAA_M/tsDiIhoFr_g/s1600-h/Property%20Shark.jpg"><img alt="Property Shark" border="0" height="343" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TTh2HPoU1JI/AAAAAAAAA_Q/zJGfJ75K1eM/Property%20Shark_thumb.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="Property Shark" width="502" /></a><i><span style="font-size: x-small;"> Courtesy of Property Shark</span></i><br /><br />On the Broadway corner showing the 15.2’ side of the Haymarket property (the pointy angle of the yellow triangle a few pictures above). <i>Neckties, Scarves and Corbatas</i>.&nbsp; The tall building on the next block (6th Avenue, facing the entrance of the old Haymarket) is the new Eventi Hotel.<br /><br /><a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TTh2Jv_nMVI/AAAAAAAAA_Y/0q-RJEthlUI/s1600-h/haymarket%20bway%20to%206th%20across%2030thi.jpg"><img alt="haymarket bway to 6th across 30thi" border="0" height="435" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TTh2KX0qBwI/AAAAAAAAA_k/BsdTj_lYqLc/haymarket%20bway%20to%206th%20across%2030thi_thumb.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="haymarket bway to 6th across 30thi" width="501" /></a><br /><br />Panning to the left you can see the Ace Hotel (the old Breslin) and the Gilsey House were just a block away on Broadway.&nbsp; Broadway was literally the dividing line between these two parts of town!&nbsp; The Haymarket was full of pickpockets, con artists and gangsters preying on out-of-towners. It was so well known that if you were visiting New York you went there just so you could tell your friends back home.&nbsp; I suppose the proximity of the two parts of town made sense in the days before subways and yellow cabs.<br />&nbsp; <br /><a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TUL4r9SOdgI/AAAAAAAAA_s/uDPgd_Fe9AE/s1600-h/haymarket%20bway%20side12%5B3%5D.jpg"><img alt="haymarket bway side12" border="0" height="431" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TUL4svPem9I/AAAAAAAAA_w/Gl-GEEedVU8/haymarket%20bway%20side12_thumb%5B1%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="haymarket bway side12" width="496" /></a>&nbsp;&nbsp; <br /><br />Here’s a <i>New York Times</i> piece from February 15, 1920 that sheds more light on the Haymarket and the property’s history.<br /><br /><a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TTh1-u5WgkI/AAAAAAAAA7o/q5SBgCzXYmk/s1600-h/a1feb1519201.png"><img alt="a1 feb 15 1920" border="0" height="29" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TTh1_A8zCXI/AAAAAAAAA7s/HwcoF5Eqqbs/a1feb151920_thumb1.png?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: block; float: none; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" title="a1 feb 15 1920" width="240" /></a><a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TTh1_iaoyyI/AAAAAAAAA7w/pY5sU7MSX-Y/s1600-h/1FEb1519202.png"><img alt="1 FEb 15 1920" border="0" height="145" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TTh1_81waZI/AAAAAAAAA70/UFVy8q9RCzQ/1FEb151920_thumb2.png?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: block; float: none; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" title="1 FEb 15 1920" width="335" /></a><a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TTh2AwgVBaI/AAAAAAAAA74/4ORFguG36tw/s1600-h/FEb1519209.png"><img alt="FEb 15 1920" border="0" height="937" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TTh2CRgrZmI/AAAAAAAAA78/NrW_BY_iYkY/FEb151920_thumb9.png?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: block; float: none; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" title="FEb 15 1920" width="339" /></a><br />Now another fascinating tidbit. You might have noticed that the buildings across the street from the Haymarket are angled at the same orientation!&nbsp; Usually angled buildings are indicative of old roads, but when they match each other on opposite sides of a street, that’s a pretty good sign of one. <br /><br /><a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TUL4uQNAJQI/AAAAAAAAA_0/xqtPujQYsCY/s1600-h/Haymarket5%5B3%5D.jpg"><img alt="Haymarket5" border="0" height="422" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TUL4vJeI2RI/AAAAAAAAA_4/AyF56sTLzIE/Haymarket5_thumb%5B1%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="Haymarket5" width="485" /></a><br /><br />Just to show the angle at street level, here’s West 30th Street across from the Haymarket…<br /><br /><a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TUL4vx1evGI/AAAAAAAAA_8/oO9NoR7rpNQ/s1600-h/across%2030.jpg"><img alt="across 30" border="0" height="429" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TUL4wisPs3I/AAAAAAAABAA/fOTGjgLpe9w/across%2030_thumb.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="across 30" width="492" /></a><br /><br />So now I was on the hunt for an old road, long before the days of NoMad and the Tenderloin. I found this description of a Stewart Street from <i>As You Pass By</i>, by Kenneth Dunshee:<br /><blockquote><b>Stewart Street</b> formerly ran from Broadway between 30th and 31st Sts.&nbsp; southwesterly to a point in the block bounded by 6th Ave. and 7th Ave., 28th and 29th Sts.</blockquote>And here’s what such a street might look like on the Viele map (in bright green), with the Haymarket in red.<br /><br /><a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TTh15eIkKCI/AAAAAAAABAE/7MHQX5-ep7A/s1600-h/Madison%20Square%20FINALi.jpg"><img alt="Madison Square FINALi" border="0" height="561" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TTh16TBj94I/AAAAAAAABAM/g7YWln30AXs/Madison%20Square%20FINALi_thumb.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="Madison Square FINALi" width="497" /></a> <br /><br />The yellow boundaries above are neither the Tenderloin nor NoMad but a proposed military training ground.&nbsp; Back in the early 1800s, when Stewart Street existed, the Commissioner’s Plan of 1811 had laid out the area above as a Parade Ground for the military (we were preparing for the War of 1812).&nbsp;&nbsp; It extended from 3rd to 7th Avenues, 23rd to 34th Streets. It would not, however, come to fruition.&nbsp; <br /><br />Just for reference, here’s what the parade ground would look like on today’s grid; a central park before Central Park. <br /><br /><a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TTh13hLXJNI/AAAAAAAABAU/Tvsysqonw2Q/s1600-h/parade%20ground%20closeri.jpg"><img alt="parade ground closeri" border="0" height="434" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TTh14uczCXI/AAAAAAAABAc/yiNVrSSL2gM/parade%20ground%20closeri_thumb.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="parade ground closeri" width="498" /></a><br /><br />If you read the post <a href="http://manhattanunlocked.blogspot.com/search?updated-min=2010-01-01T00%3A00%3A00-05%3A00&amp;updated-max=2011-01-01T00%3A00%3A00-05%3A00&amp;max-results=11"><i>Why the West Side is Different</i></a> it explains a lot about the uptown roads leaving from Madison Square.&nbsp; Here they are on the Viele map (in blue as a schematic).&nbsp; From left to right the four roads are: the Bloomingdale Road (which became Broadway), Albany Avenue, the Middle Road, and the Boston Post Road (notice how the two roads to the right went around either side of Sunfish Pond. The stream leading from Sunfish Pond still floods the deep basement of the Empire State Building today!).&nbsp; <br /><br />Stewart Street appears to have led from Chelsea (and probably the old Fitzroy Road) and connected to the Bloomingdale Road!&nbsp; <br /><br /><a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TTh17dDtepI/AAAAAAAABAg/v7QZBSmd3Jk/s1600-h/Madison%20Square%20FINALii.jpg"><img alt="Madison Square FINALii" border="0" height="555" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TTh18fZpFgI/AAAAAAAABAs/pILdavGm6eU/Madison%20Square%20FINALii_thumb.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="Madison Square FINALii" width="493" /></a><br /><br />Stewart Street followed the low ground (see the hash marks just south of it?). And according to the <i>Times </i>article above the old Haymarket started out life in the 1830s as a bath house, which would make sense as it was at the bottom of a hill--you wouldn’t want to lug water up a hill in the days before plumbing! <br /><br />It’s amazing how an area changes over time.&nbsp; Later on, the area immediately to the west of that high volume traffic area would become the Tenderloin.&nbsp; And though the Tenderloin was huge, the heart of it, and the Haymarket, seem to have left a residential and commercial hole right in the middle of the city. It's like the urban environment has a memory all its own. Finally on the verge of an upswing, NoMad is reclaiming that most notorious part of that most notorious district.&nbsp; <br />&nbsp; <br />Pretty riveting stuff.<br /><br />Here's some Google Earth art. <br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-6_YqQlBs8Fo/TXOHYMeoRGI/AAAAAAAABfw/nBatPr2RTGs/s1600/THe%2BOld%2BHaymarket.jpg" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" height="552" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-6_YqQlBs8Fo/TXOHYMeoRGI/AAAAAAAABfw/nBatPr2RTGs/s640/THe%2BOld%2BHaymarket.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/ManhattanUnlocked/~4/uJ7GTkqAqCY" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>Robert Amellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06084801755976271616noreply@blogger.com138http://manhattanunlocked.blogspot.com/2011/01/haymarket-broadway-nomadand-long.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2681192941667483351.post-27958899215514530292011-01-21T15:06:00.004-05:002011-02-28T22:20:07.458-05:00The Inspiration for the Statue of Liberty<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TTmjkFo1T7I/AAAAAAAAA9E/3-ZZP1kVh2k/s1600/IMG_1203iiii.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"></a><br /><a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TTdOgdxXhuI/AAAAAAAAA44/EMmqCvOZ2ow/s1600-h/IMG_1203211.jpg"><img align="right" alt="IMG_12032" border="0" height="400" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TTdOg-EPc_I/AAAAAAAAA48/3o1Y5zgjXBU/IMG_12032_thumb9.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px;" title="IMG_12032" width="217" /></a>There's a difference between what <i>inspires</i> a statue to come into creation and what a statue <i>represents</i>, and it's an interesting one when it comes to the Statue of Liberty. The <i>inspiration </i>for the Statue of Liberty is said to have occurred at a specific time and place, and among a particular group of people. But the mainstream <i>meaning </i>of the Statue of Liberty has evolved over time, and generally fits into one of three categories, as most school kids' essays can attest: 1. Universal concepts of freedom and liberty, 2. Liberty as it relates to the monarchs and autocrats of old Europe, and/or 3. Poor and exhausted immigrant masses being welcomed beneath the protective wing of Liberty, mainly due to Emma Lazarus’s great classic epic, <i>The New Colossus</i>.<br /><br />But with Martin Luther King Day just passed and Black History Month around the corner, it’s a good time to recognize an under-appreciated fact about the origins of the Statue of Liberty. The statue’s history, or what some might call its <i>pre</i>-history, and still others might call its <i>inspiration,</i> is solidly rooted in the end slavery in the US and the restoration of the Union at the end of the Civil War.<br /><br />The statue, it is generally agreed, was conceived at a dinner party in 1865, 21 years before its unveiling in New York Harbor. Pete Hamill wrote about it in <i>A Story to Remember, </i>from<i> </i><i>New York</i> magazine, May 12, 1986. <br /><blockquote>At a dinner party of fellow liberals in the summer of 1865 at Laboulaye's mansion in Glatigny, on the outskirts of Versaille, the talk was ebullient about the surrender of Lee and the end of slavery, the one great blot on the American experiment. But the talk was also darkened by news of the murder of Lincoln. Laboulaye spoke passionately about the joint history of modern France and the United States ("the two sisters") and recalled the great contributions made by the Marquis de Lafayette to the American cause....He said, "there you have the basis of American feeling for the French--an indestructible basis. The feeling honors the Americans as well as us, and if a monument should rise in the United States, as a memorial to their independence, I should think it only natural if it were built by united effort--a common work of both our nations."</blockquote>The passionate speaker was the abolitionist and great champion of American democracy, Edouard Rene Lefebvre de Laboulaye, a French politician, historian and president of the French Anti-Slavery Society, as well as author of the 3-volume <i>Political History of the United States</i>.<br /><br />Auguste Bartholdi, the statue’s sculptor, was also in attendance that night.<br /><br />The sculptor's intended meaning for the statue is one thing, but the statue's inspiration, that is, why it should exist at all, is more complex.&nbsp; Following are two passages from the same book that demonstrate the semantic gray area between "meaning" and "inspiration." From <i>The Statue of Liberty</i>, by Cara Sutherland, Museum of the City of New York, p. 18. &nbsp; <br /><blockquote>Having an agreed-upon concept, Bartholdi could begin the modeling process.&nbsp; In recent years there has been much speculation that the statue was intended to be symbolic of an African slave—thereby representing abolitionist sentiments—because of the broken shackle and chain lying at her feet. But in keeping with Laboulaye and Bartholdi’s original source of inspiration for creating the statue, it is more likely that those items represent America’s break from European control and its ability to maintain political independence in the years following the Revolution.&nbsp; Although dedication speeches in 1886 would praise the Union’s victory in the Civil War and the abolition of slavery, the statue itself expresses a more general expression of political independence, in keeping with the intellectual climate of the time.&nbsp; </blockquote>Here are the opening lines of the same book, keeping in mind the words "original source of inspiration" from the above passage, p. 9.<br /><blockquote>An artist never knows when inspiration will strike. For the young French sculptor Frederic-Auguste Bartholdi, it was at a dinner party held in 1865 at Glatigny, the estate of the esteemed historian Edouard Rene Lefebvre de Laboulaye.&nbsp; During the gathering, Bartholdi found himself included among a distinguished group of liberal politicians and intellectuals. Laboulaye counted many of France’s leading lights among his friends, and in attendance were Count Agenor de Gasparin and Henri Martin, advisory council members of the newly formed <i>Comite Francais pour l’emancipation des esclaves</i> (the French anti-slavery society of which Laboulaye was president), and politician Count Charles de Remusat. </blockquote><blockquote>After dinner, discussion turned to recent events in the United States: the Civil War, the abolition of slavery, and the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. How could this young country maintain democracy in the face of adversity while France, founded on many of the same principles during its own revolutionary moment, had stumbled off the path?&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </blockquote>The Statue of Liberty's <i>meaning </i>would be "inspired" by Greek classical ideals of freedom and democracy--she is the goddess Liberty. But the<i> inspiration for a statue in the first place</i> is said to have sprung from the two countries' friendship, the upcoming centenial of the US, and the struggle for survival of the democratic experiment on both continents.&nbsp;&nbsp; <br /><br />But consider this, just a year after the dinner party in 1866 Laboulaye and his associates presented Mary Todd Lincoln with a gold medal carrying this inscription:<br /><blockquote><div align="center"><span style="font-size: small;"><i>Lincoln, an honest man, he abolished slavery, restored the union, saved the republic, without veiling the statue of liberty</i></span></div></blockquote><div align="left"><a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TTdKCSSfyAI/AAAAAAAAA0E/RIc36Sb1KLU/s1600-h/33_lincolnmedal_smi3.jpg"><img alt="33_lincolnmedal_smi" border="0" height="371" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TTdKCynr5nI/AAAAAAAAA0Q/t6v9oNt0A9c/33_lincolnmedal_smi_thumb1.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: block; float: none; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" title="33_lincolnmedal_smi" width="370" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TTdZm5jePgI/AAAAAAAAA5A/vEoKz0ikPFc/s1600/lincoln-medal-backi.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="396" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TTdZm5jePgI/AAAAAAAAA5A/vEoKz0ikPFc/s400/lincoln-medal-backi.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br />This was five years <i>before</i> Laboulaye gave Bartholdi the commission to build the Statue of Liberty<i>; Abolished slavery...without veiling the statue of liberty</i>. <br /><br />Though I don't normally practice historical <i>what ifs</i>, think about it this way--would the president of the French Anti-Slavery Society, whose brainchild the statue was, come up with the idea for a Statue of Liberty, in 1865 or any year, had the Civil War <i>not </i>been fought and won by the Union? If the French-US friendship and the 100th anniversary of the United States were the inspirational factors for the Statue of Liberty, they themselves were inspired--and worth paying tribute to--<i>precisely because</i> of the abolition of slavery in the US and the end of the Civil War. The African American saga and the triumph of human rights over slavery were front and center to the inspired talk on the night the Statue of Liberty was conceived. <br /><br />But the statue <i>would have</i> a universal meaning. So universal, in fact, that Bartholdi first attempted build her over the Suez Canal in 1867! But his efforts failed to gain traction with Ismail Pasha of Egypt and in 1871 Laboulaye gave him the commission to build the Statue of Liberty in the United States. &nbsp; <br /><br />When the statue was unveiled in 1886 it was the Gilded Age in America, and 20 years since the end of the Civil War.&nbsp; It would be the equivalent of recalling the invasion of Kuwait today.&nbsp; And it would be nearly another 20 years before Emma Lazarus's epic poem, now tucked away in so many books of poetry since 1883, would be re-discovered and connected to the statue.<br /><br />At the unveiling, <i>Liberty Enlightening the World </i>(the statue's official name) was meant to send a trans-Atlantic message. For Bartholdi and a great many people the Statue of Liberty represented the triumphal forces of liberty and democracy radiating out, from new continent to old; the new ideals being shown to the monarchies of old Europe.&nbsp; <br />&nbsp;<a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TTdKkgWL-dI/AAAAAAAAA1w/EggKpHNIK_k/s1600-h/http___wwwii%5B3%5D.png"><img alt="http___wwwii" border="0" height="600" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TTdKqScni8I/AAAAAAAAA10/MEqMD73D3pA/http___wwwii_thumb%5B3%5D.png?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="http___wwwii" width="492" /></a> <span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>Statue of Liberty Enlightening the World</i> Oil, Edward Moran, 1886. Museum of the City of New York</span><br /><br />Indeed, some people had trouble grasping its meaning. As <i>Liberty and Freedom</i>, by David Hackett Fischer describes it (p. 374),<br /><blockquote>Not everybody liked it. Philadelphians thought it belonged on the Delaware River. New England Yankees complained that the Statue of Liberty was too big, too vulgar, too foreign, too French, and too New York. The conservative Boston poet James Russell Lowell wrote that it was overdone, and he could not see the point of it. </blockquote><blockquote>At the opposite end of the political spectrum was a Russian radical, Aleksandra Kollontai, who thought it was “pitiful” and “shrunken”…The Roman Catholic clergy were hostile in yet another way. They raged against a pagan female idol of liberty, which gave them four reasons to dislike it.</blockquote>But Emma Lazarus would single-handedly "turn our telescopes around" in how we viewed the statue. She wrote <i>The New Colossus</i> for an auction in 1883 to raise funds for the pedestal; it was published and promptly forgotten about.&nbsp; Lazarus was a poet and great humanitarian, having volunteered to help indigent immigrants on Ward's Island. She passed away at 38, in 1887.&nbsp; A friend, Georgina Shuyler re-discovered the poem in a secondhand bookshop in 1903 and was instantly struck be the force of its message.&nbsp; She persuaded others, and a bronze plaque was set on the statue. With the poem, and people's immediate connection to it, the statue changed from one of beaming liberty <i>outward</i>, to one of protection and relief for the new arrivals, almost seeming to bless them.&nbsp; As well, many halfhearted enthusiasts and outright critics came around, many people now "got it."&nbsp; <br /><br />&nbsp;<a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TTdKrfErzpI/AAAAAAAAA14/IOTJS1HkD8Q/s1600-h/the-new-colossusi%5B4%5D.jpg"><img alt="the-new-colossusi" border="0" height="400" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TTdKsFsPdqI/AAAAAAAAA18/jE8t-NBCQO4/the-new-colossusi_thumb%5B2%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="the-new-colossusi" width="483" /></a> <br /><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">This is how most people relate to the Statue of Liberty today. The sonnet is virtually synonymous with the statue; the Gettysburg Address of immigration: classic, epic.&nbsp;&nbsp;</span><br /><span style="font-size: small;"><br />And though the Statue of Liberty’s <i>meaning</i> might have changed over time, its <i>inspiration</i> can never change.&nbsp; And if it was at that dinner held in 1865 where they discussed, to quote the medal, Lincoln’s ability to “abolish slavery, restore the union, and save the republic, without veiling the statue of liberty,” then it's pretty strong evidence that the Civil War, the ultimate fight for Civil Rights, was a large factor in the inspiration for the Statue of Liberty.&nbsp; That the <i>meaning</i> of the statue is different from her <i>inspiration </i>serves only to give us more levels on which to honor her. </span><br /><div style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></div><div style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;">So let's look at her a bit. <br /></span></div><div style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />The pedestal and the Statue were built on</span> Fort Wood, one of four forts built in the harbor to prepare for the War of 1812. The pedestal was created by the great architect Richard Morris Hunt, and financed by the American people.&nbsp; </span></div><div style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TTdKss4jHiI/AAAAAAAAA2A/YAuBpPKlWQg/s1600-h/indexiii%5B1%5D.jpg"><img alt="indexiii" border="0" height="523" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TTdKtvxfEtI/AAAAAAAAA2E/1nLRrG2kD54/indexiii_thumb.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="indexiii" width="420" /></a></span> </div><br /><span style="font-size: small;">When seen from different </span><span style="font-size: small;">perspectives </span><span style="font-size: small;">the statue</span><span style="font-size: small;"> changes form and movement</span><span style="font-size: small;"> </span><span style="font-size: small;">.&nbsp;</span><br /><span style="font-size: small;"></span><br /><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TTmjkFo1T7I/AAAAAAAAA9E/3-ZZP1kVh2k/s1600/IMG_1203iiii.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TTmjkFo1T7I/AAAAAAAAA9E/3-ZZP1kVh2k/s400/IMG_1203iiii.jpg" width="322" /></a><span style="font-size: small;">&nbsp;</span><br /><span style="font-size: small;">From one vantage point she seems stable and still. Her beacon, first considered to be "enlightening the world," was turned inward and became a guiding light, showing the passage to the New World, welcoming and offering opportunity to new arrivals.</span><br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TTminKFE13I/AAAAAAAAA88/c_SJY5SRM0M/s1600/IMG_1207ok.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TTminKFE13I/AAAAAAAAA88/c_SJY5SRM0M/s640/IMG_1207ok.jpg" width="312" /></a></div><br /><br /><br /><br /><span style="font-size: small;">She is most active </span><span style="font-size: small;">from the vantage point of ships entering the harbor.&nbsp; Here she steps out of broken chains of bondage.&nbsp;</span> <br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TTdKu8BbJKI/AAAAAAAAA2Q/z4so9jVtHk8/s1600-h/back1%5B4%5D.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="back1" border="0" height="400" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TTdKvz_gVCI/AAAAAAAAA2U/SkXCD1DRGGg/back1_thumb%5B2%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="back1" width="342" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />From the back, the sense of forward movement is combined with a sense of strength and stability. <br /><br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TTmjkFo1T7I/AAAAAAAAA9E/3-ZZP1kVh2k/s1600/IMG_1203iiii.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><br /></a></div><a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TTdOefzJ6PI/AAAAAAAAA4o/7nICckEpc04/s1600-h/IMG_0010ii22.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img align="left" alt="IMG_0010ii" border="0" height="400" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TTdOegmC9ZI/AAAAAAAAA4s/sJs-WxoZXcE/IMG_0010ii_thumb20.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px;" title="IMG_0010ii" width="349" /></a><br /><br />Aside the statue she appears stable, with America at her back, transmitting many messages from that time in history.<br /><br /><br /><a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TTdOfW6XZlI/AAAAAAAAA4w/hZpkgp8E2Bk/s1600-h/IMG_1207iiii22.jpg"></a><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/ManhattanUnlocked/~4/qt6chs-fT58" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>Robert Amellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06084801755976271616noreply@blogger.com22http://manhattanunlocked.blogspot.com/2011/01/inspiration-for-statue-of-liberty.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2681192941667483351.post-60965395665995289842011-01-13T05:52:00.003-05:002014-05-29T20:00:56.868-04:00Morningside Heights: History is in the Lay of the LandThe last post, <a href="http://manhattanunlocked.blogspot.com/2010/12/why-west-side-is-different.html"><i>Why the West Side is Different</i></a>, talked about Morningside Heights as an impediment to west side traffic, a virtual “island in the air.” This post will explore more of the plateau, its terrain, its major tenants through history, and what can be seen today in the streets and buildings that reveal its past.<br />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; <br />Below is Morningside Heights on the Viele map with the “pure grid” superimposed over the terrain—the oldest and (proposed) newest features of the area when the map was drawn up in 1865.&nbsp; But at the time, only the Bloomingdale Road existed, and the narrow lane branching off at 111th Street.&nbsp; It’s the nonconformist road to the left.<br /><br />According to the <i>Encyclopedia of New York</i> <i>City</i>, the Bloomingdale Road “opened in 1703 and ran from what is now 23rd Street to the northern&nbsp; end of Bloomingdale Village, near what is now 114th Street. In 1795 the road was extended north to 147th Street and linked to the old Kingsbridge Road."<br /><br />So from 1703 until 1795, the Bloomingdale Road <i>ended </i>at the bend in the road at 115th Street, just before the river.&nbsp; The narrow road that branches off at 111th Street seems to have been a dry passage up to the plateau. <br /><br /><a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TS1D24PmgDI/AAAAAAAAArU/k-yAHCX4klA/s1600-h/AAA%5B3%5D.jpg"><img alt="AAA" border="0" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TS1D37jS4JI/AAAAAAAAArY/GeHLxzovmIU/AAA_thumb%5B1%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" height="732" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="AAA" width="502" /></a><span style="font-size: x-small;">&nbsp;</span><br /><i><span style="font-size: x-small;">courtesy of kottke.org</span></i> <br /><br />And the bend in the road is still visible today! <br /><br />This is 114th Street and Riverside Drive looking north; dog and walker are crossing Broadway at 115th Street (toward the Hudson).&nbsp; Not only can you see the bend in the road, there’s a slight dip where the river crossed through!&nbsp;&nbsp; Beyond the third traffic light, at 116th Street, the road follows the “new” orientation of Riverside Drive. <br />&nbsp; <br /><a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TS1D492xvLI/AAAAAAAAArc/dXtdMNPiYKU/s1600-h/IMG_1575%5B4%5D.jpg"><img alt="IMG_1575" border="0" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TS1D5XuIVGI/AAAAAAAAArg/BZKMJH6fU9Q/IMG_1575_thumb%5B2%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" height="384" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="IMG_1575" width="501" /></a> <br /><br />GoogleEarth shows it even better.&nbsp; We’ll revisit this spot later. <br /><br /><a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TS1D5_vEp7I/AAAAAAAAArk/QWnoxIl42So/s1600-h/bloomingdale%20%40%20115%5B4%5D.jpg"><img alt="bloomingdale @ 115" border="0" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TS1D6p5L-hI/AAAAAAAAAro/OANSj5-De5Y/bloomingdale%20%40%20115_thumb%5B2%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" height="443" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="bloomingdale @ 115" width="508" /></a> <br /><br />Much of the buildable land on Morningside Heights is arranged in a diagonal.&nbsp; Below, Grant’s Tomb, Riverside Church and a few other tenants occupy the upper left corner.&nbsp; The middle rectangle is the footprint of Columbia University, and the lower right is the property of St. John the Divine, situated on a slightly lower plateau.&nbsp; (Imagine the boxes arranged diagonally the other way and all the hash marks that would be in the boundaries.) <br /><br /><a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TS1D7UmHqMI/AAAAAAAAArs/x7PVlTzHXT0/s1600-h/Final%20111%5B4%5D.jpg"><img alt="Final 111" border="0" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TS1D8oU2BMI/AAAAAAAAArw/9rsEJdNZJ7o/Final%20111_thumb%5B2%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" height="718" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="Final 111" width="498" /></a>&nbsp; <br /><br />The green boxes are Low Library (directly over 117th Street), Butler Library (on the north side of 114th Street), and St. John the Divine (directly over 112th Street).&nbsp; <br /><br />If you’re familiar with the area, follow Broadway (Eleventh Avenue) up to 121st Street and you can see where the ground drops away and the 1 train emerges out of the north side of the plateau. <br /><br />Let’s look at the topography from street level.<br /><br />This is Amsterdam Avenue (Tenth on the Viele map) at 117th Street looking south, Columbia is on the right.&nbsp; 117th Street is a high ridge across the center<i> </i>plateau.&nbsp; In the middle distance you can see the lower plateau of St. John the Divine.&nbsp; The bus crossing way up ahead is on 110th Street, the south boundary of Morningside Heights.<br /><br /><a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TS1D9UfASGI/AAAAAAAAAr0/GH5SFiTP6bI/s1600-h/IMG_1588%5B4%5D.jpg"><img alt="IMG_1588" border="0" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TS1D90wp3vI/AAAAAAAAAr4/SI346roHuMs/IMG_1588_thumb%5B2%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" height="383" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="IMG_1588" width="500" /></a><br /><br />On the other side of campus, Broadway, you can see the same undulation in the road.&nbsp; The south boundary of Morningside Heights is beyond that last bump. <br /><br /><a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TS1D-rHoLTI/AAAAAAAAAr8/48OZSMKYfBQ/s1600-h/IMG_1619%5B3%5D.jpg"><img alt="IMG_1619" border="0" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TS1D_WeQJHI/AAAAAAAAAsA/lMvZG7r2404/IMG_1619_thumb%5B1%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" height="386" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="IMG_1619" width="506" /></a> <br /><br />Back on Amsterdam, 117th Street looking <i>the other way.</i>&nbsp; You can see why this area was avoided in the days of horse and foot travel.&nbsp; <br />&nbsp; <br /><a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TS1EAH3MeCI/AAAAAAAAAsE/jKbcPm9XvNo/s1600-h/IMG_1590%5B9%5D.jpg"><img alt="IMG_1590" border="0" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TS1EAtfRfWI/AAAAAAAAAsI/ee3yMD4Ciog/IMG_1590_thumb%5B5%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" height="382" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="IMG_1590" width="500" /></a> <br /><br />Zooming in is even more dramatic… <br /><br /><a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TS1EBto_l4I/AAAAAAAAAsM/p3eWz0zuVsA/s1600-h/IMG_1594%5B3%5D.jpg"><img alt="IMG_1594" border="0" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TS1ECdNs-eI/AAAAAAAAAsQ/wt6wb8qDf38/IMG_1594_thumb%5B1%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" height="382" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="IMG_1594" width="502" /></a><br /><br />The hill on Broadway is best seen in this old photo. 117th Street is at the end of the first traffic island (the one with the subway station in the middle of Broadway). The first building on the right is Lewisohn, the Mathematics Building is north of it on Broadway.&nbsp; In between them is where 117th would run if it crossed campus, the apex. <br /><br /><a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TS1EC2n5GGI/AAAAAAAAAsU/0ZJXrTLuwMg/s1600-h/symp%2011%5B3%5D.jpg"><img alt="symp 11" border="0" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TS1ED_pCBYI/AAAAAAAAAsY/eG_Xk3j2T-U/symp%2011_thumb%5B1%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" height="330" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="symp 11" width="510" /></a> <br /><br />Exactly where 117th Street would be, squarely on the apex of the central plateau, sits Low Library.<br />&nbsp; <br /><a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TSSGGUpeo4I/AAAAAAAAAns/UnSbmtZOxxI/s1600-h/IMG_05554.jpg"><img alt="IMG_0555" border="0" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TSSGG250DfI/AAAAAAAAAnw/dhhVy-CQXMo/IMG_0555_thumb2.jpg?imgmax=800" height="382" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="IMG_0555" width="502" /></a><br /><br />And here’s St. John the Divine, on the lower plateau.&nbsp; This view is looking east along 112th Street, from Broadway to Amsterdam.<br /><br /><a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TSSGJFXhH1I/AAAAAAAAAn8/tDDLINM7PS8/s1600-h/IMG_09424.jpg"><img alt="IMG_0942" border="0" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TSSGJ8DtBOI/AAAAAAAAAoA/O3fQaXQdK98/IMG_0942_thumb2.jpg?imgmax=800" height="383" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="IMG_0942" width="504" /></a><br /><br />For <i>Seinfeld </i>fans…<br /><br /><a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TS1EEnSVvMI/AAAAAAAAAsc/h6_bAmYv4ik/s1600-h/Toms%20Restaurant%5B3%5D.jpg"><img alt="Toms Restaurant" border="0" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TS1EFevffcI/AAAAAAAAAsg/XCMeykVzXEU/Toms%20Restaurant_thumb%5B1%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" height="441" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="Toms Restaurant" width="507" /></a> <br /><br />But these weren’t the first institutions to occupy the choice real estate of Morningside Heights. Before Low Library was built on the high center point, the Bloomingdale Insane Asylum opened its first building in 1821 on the exact same spot.&nbsp; It would literally be under the rotunda of Low if it were standing today.&nbsp; You can see the trees in the back appear to descend down the hill. <br /><br /><a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TS1EFlD2GdI/AAAAAAAAAsk/EKeDIajdsbM/s1600-h/bloomingdale%20asylum%20ii%5B4%5D.jpg"><img alt="bloomingdale asylum ii" border="0" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TS1EGLZ4Z4I/AAAAAAAAAso/54dGi3yXeKY/bloomingdale%20asylum%20ii_thumb%5B2%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" height="293" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="bloomingdale asylum ii" width="499" /></a> <br /><br />The Bloomingdale Insane Asylum was joined in 1843 by the Leake and Watts Orphanage, which moved onto the lower plateau of today’s St. John the Divine.&nbsp; For nearly 50 years the two neighbors enjoyed quiet, woodsy grounds. The therapeutic gardens of the insane asylum were located on the lower half of Columbia University, between 114th – 116th Streets.<br /><br />Below are the buildings of both institutions, superimposed on the later ones. <br /><br /><a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TS1EG_sRBoI/AAAAAAAAAss/u7UvHoF3Pp4/s1600-h/Final%2011111%5B3%5D.jpg"><img alt="Final 11111" border="0" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TS1EIH2Gm3I/AAAAAAAAAs0/HjBZVmfB3gk/Final%2011111_thumb%5B1%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" height="721" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="Final 11111" width="497" /></a> <br /><br />A few of the buildings are…<br /><blockquote>The insane asylum’s first building is directly over Low Library.&nbsp; Men’s and women’s wings were added within a few years of the first building. </blockquote><blockquote>Macy Villa (a “men’s department”) sits directly on 116th Street.</blockquote><blockquote>The Superintendent’s House is the building closest to Broadway (Eleventh Avenue). </blockquote><blockquote>The conservatory is the cross-shaped building on 117th Street. <br /><br />The barn and stables sit over the left side of Butler Library, in the therapeutic gardens.<br /><br />The gymnasium and bowling alley sit on the right side of Butler, also in the gardens.<br /><br />The orphanage building sits at the south crossing of St. John the Divine. </blockquote>A single structure from both institutions survive today. <br /><br />For context, the building to the far right is Macy Villa. <br /><a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TSSGCbMHVxI/AAAAAAAAAnU/V-QBAbF-ZXg/s1600-h/IMG_05545.jpg"><img alt="IMG_0554" border="0" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TSSGDCetwwI/AAAAAAAAAnY/VDs8VqXKZyc/IMG_0554_thumb3.jpg?imgmax=800" height="382" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="IMG_0554" width="499" /></a><br /><br />&nbsp;Today it is Buell Hall on the Columbia campus.<br /><br /><a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TSSGE3uSlKI/AAAAAAAAAnk/PyIitp_K3j0/s1600-h/IMG_05604.jpg"><img alt="IMG_0560" border="0" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TSSGF_LSHNI/AAAAAAAAAno/WEoUlh6TVQc/IMG_0560_thumb2.jpg?imgmax=800" height="381" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="IMG_0560" width="501" /></a><br /><br />Macy Villa’s original location was on 116th Street.&nbsp; It was moved back to build Kent Hall, its beautiful porches removed in the process.&nbsp; It was built as a residence for wealthy male patients and was the last structure built on asylum grounds, in 1885—just 10 years younger than Low!&nbsp; You can see the conservatory to the right, nestled in the trees where St. Paul’s Chapel will eventually be.&nbsp; Also, Grant’s Tomb (1897) is visible in the distance.&nbsp; <br /><br /><a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TS1EJD_QndI/AAAAAAAAAs4/8ibLJaOf2k0/s1600-h/OldBuellii%5B3%5D.jpg"><img alt="OldBuellii" border="0" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TS1EJpLk-sI/AAAAAAAAAs8/s0oMCi6Umbk/OldBuellii_thumb%5B1%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" height="355" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="OldBuellii" width="497" /></a> <br /><br />The gymnasium and bowling alley are in the lower left.<br /><br /><a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TS1EKMLzoAI/AAAAAAAAAtA/eiHIg5s4x08/s1600-h/Buell%20hall%5B8%5D.jpg"><img alt="Buell hall" border="0" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TS1EKirj0YI/AAAAAAAAAtE/EuX_LI3oQv8/Buell%20hall_thumb%5B4%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" height="270" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="Buell hall" width="508" /></a><br /><br />The insane asylum’s therapeutic gardens (not owned by Columbia yet).&nbsp; The shrubby boundary in the foreground is 114th Street, the eventual south border of Columbia.&nbsp; The gymnasium and bowling alley are to the right and Macy Villa is in the back, blending in a bit.&nbsp; <br /><br /><a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TS1ELBmTCVI/AAAAAAAAAtI/fa7-KGW12Hc/s1600-h/symp2%5B5%5D.jpg"><img alt="symp2" border="0" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TS1ELglLnaI/AAAAAAAAAtM/5utprQolrt0/symp2_thumb%5B3%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" height="286" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="symp2" width="496" /></a><br /><br />The photos above were taken sometime around 1900-1910. I’m not sure of the date of the picture below, but it was after the building was moved, since its porches are gone.&nbsp; What’s remarkable is all the ivy—it grew in just a few decades—1920s?<br /><br /><a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TS1EMRTLZ6I/AAAAAAAAAtQ/b-Xkaem2t7k/s1600-h/macy%20villa%5B6%5D.jpg"><img alt="macy villa" border="0" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TS1EM257nKI/AAAAAAAAAtU/sgxvvdLsATE/macy%20villa_thumb%5B4%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" height="521" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="macy villa" width="505" /></a><br /><br />The other survivor from the Bloomingdale Heights days (as it was called in the 1800s) is the Leake and Watts Orphanage Asylum.&nbsp; Along the south side of the Cathedral you can see the 1843 Greek Revival building to the right of the fountain.<br /><br />&nbsp;<a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TS1ENpnYpiI/AAAAAAAAAtY/3TVOv61wkLI/s1600-h/IMG_1577i%5B3%5D.jpg"><img alt="IMG_1577i" border="0" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TS1EOY4jN2I/AAAAAAAAAtc/G8N_qs93epI/IMG_1577i_thumb%5B1%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" height="258" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="IMG_1577i" width="501" /></a> <br /><br />Usually Greek Revival buildings are massive, domineering structures.&nbsp; Here it looks like a car port next to St. John the Divine.<br /><br /><a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TS1EPUMmfXI/AAAAAAAAAtg/AEpx1b6D81Q/s1600-h/IMG_1584%5B3%5D.jpg"><img alt="IMG_1584" border="0" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TS1EP62mdyI/AAAAAAAAAtk/Nv0Li-1sfBc/IMG_1584_thumb%5B1%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" height="381" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="IMG_1584" width="500" /></a> <br /><br />The orphanage in the 1860s, with hopefully soon-to-be-adopted children out front.&nbsp; The east wing (right side) of the building was removed during the cathedral’s construction. <br /><br /><a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TSSGSHM9aII/AAAAAAAAAto/gvKy4hp1_zs/s1600-h/IMG_1401%5B1%5D.jpg"><img alt="IMG_1401" border="0" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TSSGTDKOWfI/AAAAAAAAAts/1NkcPeDf414/IMG_1401_thumb.jpg?imgmax=800" height="381" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="IMG_1401" width="498" /></a><i><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><br />Museum of the City of New York</span></i><br /><br />Only the facade seems to be the same, and there’s been a lot of landscaping.&nbsp; The west wing (left side) of the building is still there though.<br /><br /><a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TSSGQZvvSNI/AAAAAAAAAoU/x9kKVJs16ik/s1600-h/IMG_09554.jpg"><img alt="IMG_0955" border="0" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TSSGRSecq0I/AAAAAAAAAoY/aY-mGMwfPN0/IMG_0955_thumb2.jpg?imgmax=800" height="381" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="IMG_0955" width="501" /></a><br /><br />Now let’s focus on the roads. Here’s a close up of the narrow lane coming off the Bloomingdale Road. Locally, Columbia students call the old road “Asylum Lane.”&nbsp; It makes sense, the road ends equidistant between the two asylums.&nbsp; The reason students are familiar with it is because it left its mark on buildings constructed along its path. <br /><br /><a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TS1ESTaPESI/AAAAAAAAAtw/iP_ETIEQgtY/s1600-h/Final%204%5B3%5D.jpg"><img alt="Final 4" border="0" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TS1ETB0d4AI/AAAAAAAAAt8/tEOVKnQLD8Y/Final%204_thumb%5B1%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" height="367" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="Final 4" width="503" /></a><br /><br />There are four circles in the image below (they’re very light), and a line showing the path of Asylum Lane.&nbsp; Two circles indicate Macy Villa (nearby its original location) and the Leake and Watts orphanage.&nbsp; The other two circles are on the path of Asylum Lane, showing buildings with walls built at angles as a result of the old street!<br /><br /><a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TS1ET40M2HI/AAAAAAAAAuA/_9MIOL9ytHE/s1600-h/1i%5B3%5D.jpg"><img alt="1i" border="0" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TS1EU-8k3OI/AAAAAAAAAuE/UAU7D3ZwU1I/1i_thumb%5B1%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" height="440" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="1i" width="506" /></a><br /><br />Here’s a close-up showing Broadway and 111th-113th Streets.<br /><br /><a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TSTH0GrsKJI/AAAAAAAAAqE/SN3D8QiFBbU/s1600-h/Asylum%20Lane%20palimpsest2%5B12%5D.jpg"><img alt="Asylum Lane palimpsest2" border="0" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TSTH02W_64I/AAAAAAAAAqI/OaeCIDE2mus/Asylum%20Lane%20palimpsest2_thumb%5B8%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" height="372" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="Asylum Lane palimpsest2" width="499" /></a><br /><br />And if you really can’t see them…<br /><br /><a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TSTH1hM8RNI/AAAAAAAAAqM/mXL1ufXa3ns/s1600-h/Asylum%20Lane%20palimpsest2b%5B3%5D.jpg"><img alt="Asylum Lane palimpsest2b" border="0" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TSTH2mgaK3I/AAAAAAAAAqQ/-0UpSEfqAak/Asylum%20Lane%20palimpsest2b_thumb%5B1%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" height="375" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="Asylum Lane palimpsest2b" width="505" /></a><br /><br />The buildings themselves were not necessarily built on Asylum Lane; they may have been built alongside older buildings that were, and so had to follow the walls of the <i>those</i> buildings. It's an artifact, a manifestation of the palimpsest, and it can get passed down through generations of buildings. (Another example of the city-as-palimpsest can be found in first post,<i> <a href="http://manhattanunlocked.blogspot.com/2010/11/ghost-of-broadway-central-hotel.html">Ghost of the Broadway Central</a>, </i>it’s short).<br /><br />Here’s a street view of those buildings on the west side of Broadway, just north of 111th Street.&nbsp; Only the middle building has <i>both</i> walls with the Asylum Lane angle.&nbsp; Asylum Lane would have passed to the right, by the teal awning.<br />&nbsp; <br /><a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TSSGawnU6rI/AAAAAAAAApE/nmvXEhMAZTE/s1600-h/IMG_09403.jpg"><img alt="IMG_0940" border="0" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TSSGbpMP--I/AAAAAAAAApI/g_2e4ZZfC7k/IMG_0940_thumb1.jpg?imgmax=800" height="385" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="IMG_0940" width="505" /></a><br /><br />The building to the south (left, above) is the Heights Bar and Grill. It has a great rooftop bar and shares one angled wall with its neighbor to the north.<br /><br /><a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TSSGcU4I1OI/AAAAAAAAApM/SC1iaVmxNO8/s1600-h/IMG_09353.jpg"><img alt="IMG_0935" border="0" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TSSGc99opsI/AAAAAAAAApQ/_AaVI5bj3XU/IMG_0935_thumb1.jpg?imgmax=800" height="386" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="IMG_0935" width="506" /></a><br /><br />The door is straight.&nbsp; But the walls and the tile floor point to the area between the orphanage and insane asylum.<br /><br /><a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TS7Q_JdPlkI/AAAAAAAAAwY/6KjOvQb8baM/s1600-h/IMG_0937%5B6%5D.jpg"><img alt="IMG_0937" border="0" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TS7Q_0RLYmI/AAAAAAAAAwc/Uh872ERSx-I/IMG_0937_thumb%5B3%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" height="381" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="IMG_0937" width="492" /></a> <br /><a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TS1EVR5RkXI/AAAAAAAAAuI/3TUd7eULsL8/s1600-h/IMG_0938ii%5B7%5D.jpg"><img alt="IMG_0938ii" border="0" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TS1EWCBaE7I/AAAAAAAAAuM/6FDNyRJanFg/IMG_0938ii_thumb%5B3%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" height="438" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="IMG_0938ii" width="497" /></a><br /><br />I find it fascinating that in 2011 an interior space can still be determined by an old road from the asylum days of the 1800s.&nbsp; And in fact, the road is much older than that! <br /><br /><a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TSSGdmFsr5I/AAAAAAAAApU/J4iJmMRbLGM/s1600-h/IMG_09366.jpg"><img alt="IMG_0936" border="0" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TSSGeERgVtI/AAAAAAAAApY/zcMh4M8pj1g/IMG_0936_thumb2.jpg?imgmax=800" height="387" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="IMG_0936" width="508" /></a><br /><br />In 1701 Jacob de Key bought nearly the entire Morningside Heights plateau from the city.&nbsp; In 1735 Thomas Key (an heir apparently) sold the plateau in two chunks: the Hudson (western) side to Adrian Hoaglandt, and the eastern side overlooking the Harlem Plains to Harmon Vandewater.&nbsp; In the 1700s the plateau was known as Vandewater Heights.&nbsp; Thus, the chain is: Vandewater Heights (1700s)-Bloomingdale Heights (1800s)-Morningside Heights (1900s).&nbsp;&nbsp; <br /><br />With all of its years of rural tranquility, Vandewater Heights did see one brief flash of spectacular violence with the Battle of Harlem Heights, a small but important morale-boosting victory for the Continental Army. The first (and just about only) time the Redcoats were sent in a retreat.&nbsp; Here’s a plaque affixed to the Mathematics building on Columbia’s campus to honor the battle in 1776—55 years before the insane asylum moved to the plateau, when Hoaglandt and Vandewater were the main tenants.&nbsp;&nbsp; <br /><br /><a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TS1EXQncstI/AAAAAAAAAuQ/bKqlEE-tmfA/s1600-h/IMG_0564%5B4%5D.jpg"><img alt="IMG_0564" border="0" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TS1EYHDEXsI/AAAAAAAAAuU/GHHrbqd7PAY/IMG_0564_thumb%5B2%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" height="533" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="IMG_0564" width="500" /></a> <br /><br />The plaque reads: “To Commemorate the Battle of Harlem Heights, Won By Washington’s Troops On This Site, September 16, 1776.&nbsp; Erected By the Sons of the Revolution in the State of New York.”&nbsp;&nbsp; Because they’re interesting, here’s an enlargement of the medallions in the lower corners:<br /><br />&nbsp;&nbsp; <a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TS1EY2mdV2I/AAAAAAAAAuY/h_egnckyYzs/s1600-h/IMG_0566%5B6%5D.jpg"><img alt="IMG_0566" border="0" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TS1EZbjvPaI/AAAAAAAAAuc/5vpkwreVmKA/IMG_0566_thumb%5B4%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" height="304" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="IMG_0566" width="245" /></a> <img alt="IMG_0565" border="0" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TS1EZm1p9dI/AAAAAAAAAug/XRFn3FHmvQ8/IMG_0565_thumb%5B3%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" height="301" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="IMG_0565" width="230" /><br /><br />And here’s a map of the battlefield, drawn by Henry Phelps Johnston, 1897.&nbsp; <br /><br /><a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TS1EaBsyAXI/AAAAAAAAAuk/UyxUHoj9byk/s1600-h/battle%20of%20harlem%20heights%5B5%5D.jpg"><img alt="battle of harlem heights" border="0" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TS1EbVPYuKI/AAAAAAAAAuo/1MG2rJQ3wOo/battle%20of%20harlem%20heights_thumb%5B3%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" height="834" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="battle of harlem heights" width="499" /></a><br /><i><span style="font-size: xx-small;">Courtesy of the Columbia University Press</span></i><br /><br />The Vandewater property is in grey and the Hoaglandt property in pink.&nbsp; In 1776 the Bloomingdale Road still <i>ended</i> at 114th Street (see where the solid road ends and the dotted road begins—at the bend in the road at 115th Street).&nbsp; Here’s a close-up of the area we’re interested in…<br /><br /><a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TS1Eb8ktTtI/AAAAAAAAAus/hfa1WUBp6So/s1600-h/battle%20of%20harlem%20heightsiii%5B3%5D.jpg"><img alt="battle of harlem heightsiii" border="0" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TS1EcWTHZqI/AAAAAAAAAuw/Ws1r7G2I21g/battle%20of%20harlem%20heightsiii_thumb%5B1%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" height="305" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="battle of harlem heightsiii" width="506" /></a> <br /><br />The black square at the end of the <i>old </i>Bloomingdale Road, and across the river, was the Hoaglandt home since 1735.&nbsp; Vandewater had also been on the plateau since 1735, but at the time his property didn’t border the Bloomingdale Road.&nbsp; Harmon Vandewater built “Asylum Lane” along his property line to access the Bloomingdale Road.&nbsp; (Johnston’s map simply marks it as “Lane.”) Also, it extended in the other direction, towards the park, leading to a path down the cliffs! <br /><br />Here’s the map once again, with the blue indicating the Hoaglandt and Vandewater homes, and the full extent of Vandewater’s road leading to Morningside Park.<br /><br /><a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TS1EdE1BPiI/AAAAAAAAAu0/oUVyrbKZwp4/s1600-h/Final%203%5B3%5D.jpg"><img alt="Final 3" border="0" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TS1Ees4wDsI/AAAAAAAAAu4/JvNSMQzCbIg/Final%203_thumb%5B1%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" height="727" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="Final 3" width="501" /></a> <br /><br />One more piece of evidence. In 1784, at the end of the Revolution, Nicholas de Peyster bought the Hoaglandt property, and a year later his brother James de Peyster bought the Vandewater side.&nbsp; <br /><br />Here’s the area again, now from the Commissioner’s Plan of 1811. It was ten years before the insane asylum came; still farmland, but now owned by the Peyster brothers.&nbsp; You can clearly make out the old Vandewater road, along with another connection leading downtown.&nbsp; See it on the bottom right?<br /><br /><a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TS1Ef6b7y0I/AAAAAAAAAvA/FsVPVyfdD-c/s1600-h/comm%20pla12%5B3%5D.jpg"><img alt="comm pla12" border="0" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TS1EgiEL8NI/AAAAAAAAAvE/YBMRtWsFdoI/comm%20pla12_thumb%5B1%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" height="532" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="comm pla12" width="509" /></a> <br /><br />Here’s an approximation of the road as it would appear on today’s grid.<br /><br /><a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TS1EhmQEtSI/AAAAAAAAAvI/ylAYGqBhsA4/s1600-h/asylum%20lane%20aii%5B3%5D.jpg"><img alt="asylum lane aii" border="0" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TS1EiVdjqEI/AAAAAAAAAvM/CVH_-od62oI/asylum%20lane%20aii_thumb%5B1%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" height="435" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="asylum lane aii" width="501" /></a> <br /><br />There are actually three entrances to Morningside Park that could possibly be the old path that led down the cliffs.&nbsp; If indeed <i>any </i>of today’s entrances<i> are</i> the old path, my best guess would be this one, at 114th Street. <br /><br /><a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TS7RA6pRnxI/AAAAAAAAAwg/giH34xi26fc/s1600-h/IMG_1611%5B3%5D.jpg"><img alt="IMG_1611" border="0" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TS7RBxnuCWI/AAAAAAAAAwk/qkFpO1yg8Fg/IMG_1611_thumb%5B1%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" height="367" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="IMG_1611" width="481" /></a>&nbsp; <br /><br />One last piece of cool history, over near the Hoaglandt house.&nbsp; It seems choice sites were recycled through history.&nbsp; This passage is from the book <i>New York of Yesterday</i>, by Hopper Striker Mott, 1908…<br /><br /><a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TS1EmwS9p1I/AAAAAAAAAvw/SR1uF0uEU80/s1600-h/carrigan%5B3%5D.png"><img alt="carrigan" border="0" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TS1EnqI1BDI/AAAAAAAAAv0/-Pvc_JzSf4o/carrigan_thumb%5B1%5D.png?imgmax=800" height="205" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="carrigan" width="512" /></a> <br />It <i>was</i> still standing when that was written in 1908, but only for another 4 years.&nbsp; It was torn down in 1912 to build the Hamilton, an apartment building.&nbsp; <br /><br />But this country estate built for the president of Emigrant Savings Bank was contemporary with the asylums. From 1840 – 1912, the Carrigan mansion stood at that bend in the road on 115th Street.&nbsp; Its Greek Revival architecture was the same style as the orphanage, built just three years later in 1843—the style of the period.&nbsp; If it were standing today it would be 50 years older than Macy Villa. <br /><br /><a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TS1EoFLhS6I/AAAAAAAAAwo/qGK4nfOGPH0/s1600-h/1153a%5B1%5D.jpg"><img alt="1153a" border="0" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TS1EogEljGI/AAAAAAAAAws/eGcpySt7I1s/1153a_thumb.jpg?imgmax=800" height="408" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="1153a" width="507" /></a>&nbsp;<i><span style="font-size: xx-small;">Courtesy of New York Public Library</span></i><br /><br />And it sat like a time capsule amongst the middle class apartment buildings of Morningside Heights until 1912.<br /><br /><a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TS1EpE11jfI/AAAAAAAAAww/rG0I6fnTebs/s1600-h/115ab%5B1%5D.jpg"><img alt="115ab" border="0" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TS1EpbsiB8I/AAAAAAAAAw4/Yb5zhAqhqO8/115ab_thumb.jpg?imgmax=800" height="635" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="115ab" width="491" /></a><br /><i><span style="font-size: xx-small;">Courtesy of New York Public Library</span></i><br /><br />Here's the Hamilton today (those are the same buildings on the right as the picture above).<br /><br />&nbsp;<a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TS1EqRbGK7I/AAAAAAAAAwI/6LO22waW8FU/s1600-h/IMG_1568%5B3%5D.jpg"><img alt="IMG_1568" border="0" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TS1Eq_ua3pI/AAAAAAAAAwM/9hSwHXDfsmY/IMG_1568_thumb%5B1%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" height="376" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="IMG_1568" width="494" /></a> <br /><br />And the Hamilton sits just east of the crook in the old Bloomingdale Road, between 114th and 115th Street, where the river once ran through. <br /><br /><a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TS1ErrWNk5I/AAAAAAAAAwQ/oZ0IZCGQERE/s1600-h/IMG_1570%5B3%5D.jpg"><img alt="IMG_1570" border="0" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TS1EsVebEQI/AAAAAAAAAwU/tv-GYadqrAc/IMG_1570_thumb%5B1%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" height="379" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="IMG_1570" width="497" /></a><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/ManhattanUnlocked/~4/TR3vTKMZyZc" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>Robert Amellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06084801755976271616noreply@blogger.com4http://manhattanunlocked.blogspot.com/2011/01/morningside-heights-history-is-in-lay.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2681192941667483351.post-40139972637905627132011-01-01T04:02:00.006-05:002011-02-16T21:39:20.370-05:00New Year’s Eve in Times SquareMy first New Year’s Eve in Times Square, no commentary along the way.&nbsp; Only to say, these are from different angles on different streets leading up to midnight, and they are all sequential. I didn’t make it into Times Square until after the ball dropped, but the confetti continued to come down forever. <br /><br />These are for my niece, Shannon—Happy Birthday! And her brother Connor, who kept me on the phone throughout the ball drop as I took pictures from 44th Street as smoke engulfed the the Paramount Building, briefly scaring me half to death.<br /><a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TR7szY05kgI/AAAAAAAAAhU/8aax3yGBWK8/s1600-h/IMG_1411%5B5%5D.jpg"><img alt="IMG_1411" border="0" height="386" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TR7s0DzZSqI/AAAAAAAAAhY/_wyOvPnySis/IMG_1411_thumb%5B3%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="IMG_1411" width="501" /></a> <br /><a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TR7s1L2hGhI/AAAAAAAAAhc/BxiCqF70OZI/s1600-h/IMG_1418%5B4%5D.jpg"><img alt="IMG_1418" border="0" height="526" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TR7s1r9ZXUI/AAAAAAAAAhg/20W6f24zZ-Y/IMG_1418_thumb%5B2%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="IMG_1418" width="403" /></a> <br /><a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TR7s2-LYOMI/AAAAAAAAAhk/LM6RAp9pxBE/s1600-h/IMG_1420%5B6%5D.jpg"><img alt="IMG_1420" border="0" height="388" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TR7s3Z3AN_I/AAAAAAAAAho/FUg5gWdeUcA/IMG_1420_thumb%5B4%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="IMG_1420" width="499" /></a> <br /><a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TR7s34vVYsI/AAAAAAAAAhs/_4QqutDvXps/s1600-h/IMG_1422%5B5%5D.jpg"><img alt="IMG_1422" border="0" height="387" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TR7s4qYybhI/AAAAAAAAAhw/ZEYQ0Gw1APE/IMG_1422_thumb%5B3%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="IMG_1422" width="501" /></a> <br /><a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TR7s5JyagoI/AAAAAAAAAh0/Cm3On60b7hs/s1600-h/IMG_1423%5B5%5D.jpg"><img alt="IMG_1423" border="0" height="387" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TR7s5paScXI/AAAAAAAAAh4/NzeLYOPALAc/IMG_1423_thumb%5B3%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="IMG_1423" width="501" /></a><br /><a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TR7s6BotJbI/AAAAAAAAAh8/iLkdCTMtUKE/s1600-h/IMG_1467%5B5%5D.jpg"><img alt="IMG_1467" border="0" height="388" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TR7s6x6ZgTI/AAAAAAAAAiA/ajKCvXQwMk8/IMG_1467_thumb%5B3%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="IMG_1467" width="502" /></a><br /><a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TR7s7YKFfaI/AAAAAAAAAiE/9RAxuk5ANSk/s1600-h/IMG_1475%5B7%5D.jpg"><img alt="IMG_1475" border="0" height="390" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TR7s8CDFJvI/AAAAAAAAAiI/8LbLGB3HaM0/IMG_1475_thumb%5B5%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="IMG_1475" width="501" /></a> <br /><a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TR7s9GDyP4I/AAAAAAAAAiM/-AcSmfP7BNI/s1600-h/IMG_1482%5B8%5D.jpg"><img alt="IMG_1482" border="0" height="394" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TR7s9rz4XOI/AAAAAAAAAiQ/HV8i2eOZcgA/IMG_1482_thumb%5B6%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="IMG_1482" width="503" /></a><br /><a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TR7s-UUEviI/AAAAAAAAAiU/w68bTi-eds4/s1600-h/IMG_1488%5B5%5D.jpg"><img alt="IMG_1488" border="0" height="389" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TR7s-zyMi9I/AAAAAAAAAiY/mdzcBV2t384/IMG_1488_thumb%5B3%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="IMG_1488" width="503" /></a><br /><br /><a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TR7tBJHKPjI/AAAAAAAAAik/lHyq1rEkGrU/s1600-h/IMG_1492%5B4%5D.jpg"><img alt="IMG_1492" border="0" height="490" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TR7tBjBVyFI/AAAAAAAAAio/8gj6B2fvTPA/IMG_1492_thumb%5B2%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="IMG_1492" width="640" /></a> <br /><br /><a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TR7tEtMTVVI/AAAAAAAAAi0/Hu8wB8PsLF8/s1600-h/IMG_1494%5B4%5D.jpg"><img alt="IMG_1494" border="0" height="491" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TR7tFDK8UWI/AAAAAAAAAi4/LmE5-Cc2XgU/IMG_1494_thumb%5B2%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="IMG_1494" width="640" /></a><br /><a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TR7tFkA_wpI/AAAAAAAAAi8/XHBJJ8eY53w/s1600-h/IMG_1501%5B8%5D.jpg"><img alt="IMG_1501" border="0" height="490" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TR7tGOzfRYI/AAAAAAAAAjA/hezPma_NVro/IMG_1501_thumb%5B4%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="IMG_1501" width="640" /></a><br /><a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TR7tG4ILtEI/AAAAAAAAAjE/wtqBRSA_jFE/s1600-h/IMG_1505%5B7%5D.jpg"><img alt="IMG_1505" border="0" height="491" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TR7tHQQVNLI/AAAAAAAAAjI/4YnDa_L8gwQ/IMG_1505_thumb%5B3%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="IMG_1505" width="640" /></a> <br /><a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TR7tINKX9mI/AAAAAAAAAjM/TFa5bTQ2614/s1600-h/IMG_1510%5B6%5D.jpg"><img alt="IMG_1510" border="0" height="496" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TR7tI3RrD-I/AAAAAAAAAjQ/sgnNyc7Ivfo/IMG_1510_thumb%5B4%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="IMG_1510" width="640" /></a><br /><a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TR7tJqtydDI/AAAAAAAAAjU/9iVyx6fhWbQ/s1600-h/IMG_1513%5B6%5D.jpg"><img alt="IMG_1513" border="0" height="495" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TR7tKDMyQqI/AAAAAAAAAjY/jrWqXT3y5V8/IMG_1513_thumb%5B4%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="IMG_1513" width="640" /></a> <br /><a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TR7tLD50RwI/AAAAAAAAAjc/2ENntlvVpk0/s1600-h/IMG_1516%5B5%5D.jpg"><img alt="IMG_1516" border="0" height="493" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TR7tMYjKDvI/AAAAAAAAAjg/ovnuYiHgLq8/IMG_1516_thumb%5B3%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="IMG_1516" width="640" /></a> <br /><a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TR7tNOX6AUI/AAAAAAAAAjk/reXCCzf_RNI/s1600-h/IMG_1520%5B5%5D.jpg"><img alt="IMG_1520" border="0" height="493" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TR7tNkJxSbI/AAAAAAAAAjo/YCjHAQ6fPT0/IMG_1520_thumb%5B3%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="IMG_1520" width="640" /></a> <br /><a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TR7tOteljGI/AAAAAAAAAjs/ICV1wLsl6z0/s1600-h/IMG_1521%5B6%5D.jpg"><img alt="IMG_1521" border="0" height="497" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TR7tPYRRRNI/AAAAAAAAAjw/x_J0m6siM0A/IMG_1521_thumb%5B4%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="IMG_1521" width="640" /></a> <br /><a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TR7tQjH-0YI/AAAAAAAAAj0/NeM66G6338M/s1600-h/IMG_1522%5B3%5D.jpg"><img alt="IMG_1522" border="0" height="487" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TR7tR6lfC2I/AAAAAAAAAj4/LlWWJ5lxBXM/IMG_1522_thumb%5B1%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="IMG_1522" width="640" /></a> <br /><a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TR7tSh20gbI/AAAAAAAAAj8/jd6Eyv4UgCI/s1600-h/IMG_1524%5B4%5D.jpg"><img alt="IMG_1524" border="0" height="491" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TR7tTZ6jbDI/AAAAAAAAAkA/o9lG4zlJdIs/IMG_1524_thumb%5B2%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="IMG_1524" width="640" /></a> <br /><a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TR7tUD4Q6AI/AAAAAAAAAkE/0dlg_LZw2WU/s1600-h/IMG_1525%5B4%5D.jpg"><img alt="IMG_1525" border="0" height="491" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TR7tUnBZfhI/AAAAAAAAAkI/U_Exhiw3jVU/IMG_1525_thumb%5B2%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="IMG_1525" width="640" /></a> <br /><a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TR7tVH2ZyQI/AAAAAAAAAkM/pUP6ySjYZYk/s1600-h/IMG_1527%5B4%5D.jpg"><img alt="IMG_1527" border="0" height="490" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TR7tVvkNqPI/AAAAAAAAAkQ/m7SbfVs2kYA/IMG_1527_thumb%5B2%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="IMG_1527" width="640" /></a> <br /><a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TR7tWb9vRXI/AAAAAAAAAkU/gJyJ5f3zLCk/s1600-h/IMG_1530%5B5%5D.jpg"><img alt="IMG_1530" border="0" height="492" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TR7tXGnqxnI/AAAAAAAAAkY/RIG9z0sSG74/IMG_1530_thumb%5B3%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="IMG_1530" width="640" /></a> <br /><a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TR7tX37Dd4I/AAAAAAAAAkc/kEJnssnIueQ/s1600-h/IMG_1532%5B4%5D.jpg"><img alt="IMG_1532" border="0" height="491" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TR7tZFo6uyI/AAAAAAAAAkg/nTAUKV_r8U8/IMG_1532_thumb%5B2%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="IMG_1532" width="640" /></a> <br /><a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TR7taBBwy0I/AAAAAAAAAkk/xDGPnavU4Qc/s1600-h/IMG_1536%5B4%5D.jpg"><img alt="IMG_1536" border="0" height="490" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TR7ta2-EqYI/AAAAAAAAAko/hudAC7Tp_gU/IMG_1536_thumb%5B2%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="IMG_1536" width="640" /></a> <br /><a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TR7tb4IUr9I/AAAAAAAAAkw/w6KYxAniE2U/s1600-h/IMG_1538%5B8%5D.jpg"><img alt="IMG_1538" border="0" height="494" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TR7tddTRAuI/AAAAAAAAAk0/1SVW2MPCaLg/IMG_1538_thumb%5B4%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="IMG_1538" width="640" /></a><br /><a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TR7tehm-fKI/AAAAAAAAAk4/bqLncJT5Mt4/s1600-h/IMG_1542%5B9%5D.jpg"><img alt="IMG_1542" border="0" height="497" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TR7tgHCfUPI/AAAAAAAAAk8/YdPQ0NwANjQ/IMG_1542_thumb%5B5%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="IMG_1542" width="640" /></a> <br /><a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TR7thPzJ68I/AAAAAAAAAlA/2TxK67czmiE/s1600-h/IMG_1544%5B8%5D.jpg"><img alt="IMG_1544" border="0" height="502" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TR7th6516MI/AAAAAAAAAlE/071e6hS3LhI/IMG_1544_thumb%5B6%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="IMG_1544" width="640" /></a> <br /><a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TR7tiuKD0YI/AAAAAAAAAlI/lqfzJ6C5fNY/s1600-h/IMG_1545%5B6%5D.jpg"><img alt="IMG_1545" border="0" height="497" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TR7tjuUbq3I/AAAAAAAAAlM/fSkyfQlIu2g/IMG_1545_thumb%5B4%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="IMG_1545" width="640" /></a> <br /><a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TR7tkhNfUfI/AAAAAAAAAlQ/atHNk5Bh3Ps/s1600-h/IMG_1546%5B5%5D.jpg"><img alt="IMG_1546" border="0" height="492" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TR7tlpfiQKI/AAAAAAAAAlU/zfeijDRjqzg/IMG_1546_thumb%5B3%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="IMG_1546" width="640" /></a><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/ManhattanUnlocked/~4/ZBCnmxnX-4Q" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>Robert Amellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06084801755976271616noreply@blogger.com4http://manhattanunlocked.blogspot.com/2011/01/new-years-eve-in-times-square.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2681192941667483351.post-3353371485726246622010-12-31T00:11:00.012-05:002011-03-11T15:25:23.173-05:00Why the West Side is Different<div style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;">The west side and the east side are frequently sized up against each other, and it's often the residents themselves who are the first to point out the defining personality traits</span><span style="font-size: small;">—the "energies" if you will—</span><span style="font-size: small;">of the two parts of town</span><span style="font-size: small;">.&nbsp; The conventional wisdom holds that the east side is younger, more bustling and vibrant; the west side more family-oriented, bohemian and quiet.&nbsp; And it always comes across that somehow it's the west side that's different and that the east side is more like the rest of the city.&nbsp; It's all true, and there's a reason for it:&nbsp; Morningside Heights.&nbsp; </span><br /><span style="font-size: small;">&nbsp; </span></div><div style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"></span></div><div style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;">Today’s Broadway, that “main thoroughfare” and old Native American path, goes right through the heart of Morningside Heights, a high plateau at the northern extreme of the upper west side and home to Columbia University,&nbsp; St. John the Divine and other renowned institutions and monumental works of architecture. Its north-south boundaries are from 110th Street to 125th Street; the steep cliffs of Riverside and Morningside Parks define its west and east boundaries. To the north a precipitous drop begins at about 122nd Street leading down into a valley and the old village of Manhattanville, </span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">dating from 1806.&nbsp; The valley was once called the Hollow Way.&nbsp; </span></span><span style="font-size: small;">Here is an image of Morningside Heights, with the Hudson River to the left.<br /><br /></span></div><a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TRrDT6kJWjI/AAAAAAAAAeE/MPtOfTMUPv4/s1600-h/clip_image002%5B2%5D.jpg"><img border="0" height="453" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TRrDUwqlGyI/AAAAAAAAAeM/VFiEfCCchmU/clip_image002_thumb%5B1%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border: 0px none;" width="520" /></a><br /><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br />Morningside Heights' history is one of rural farmland surrounded by country estates, interrupted for a brief spectacular moment in the Revolutionary War with the Battle of Harlem Heights in 1776 (one of Washington's and the Continental Army's few victories).&nbsp; In 1821 the Bloomingdale Insane Asylum moved to the quiet plateau, followed in 1843 by the Leake and Watts Orphanage (both continue their work today in Westchester).&nbsp; For nearly 50 years the two institutions existed in close proximity on the windswept, sun-soaked plateau.&nbsp; But in quick procession starting in 1887,&nbsp; St. John the Divine would take over the orphanage site and Columbia University replaced the insane asylum, accompanied to the area by St. Luke's Hospital and Teachers College. Grant's Tomb would open to the public in 1897.&nbsp; Later, other institutions would follow, including Union Theological Seminary, Riverside Church, and Julliard (which eventually moved to Lincoln Center and was replaced with the Manhattan School of Music).</span></span><br /><br /><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Here’s the same image with many of the landmarks identified. </span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Broadway is just to the left of the “M” in “Manhattanville.” </span></span><br /><pre>&nbsp;<a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TRrDV9TXI4I/AAAAAAAAAeQ/b7QxdTJRfAg/s1600-h/clip_image004%5B1%5D.jpg"><img alt="clip_image004" border="0" height="460" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TRrDWkP-w2I/AAAAAAAAAec/okIwysOrM-Q/clip_image004_thumb.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border: 0px none; display: inline;" title="clip_image004" width="525" /></a></pre><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The image below is down in the valley of Manhattanville, looking west along 125th Street toward the Hudson River</span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">.&nbsp; For an island whose nearly every hill was used to fill in every dale, the two viaducts </span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">that connect Morningside Heights with Hamilton Heights over the valley of Manhattanville are evidence of a terrain the city couldn't conquer. In the foreground is the </span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">viaduct that conveys the no. 1 subway along Broadway (the ground actually drops out from under it), and beyond it is the Riverside Drive viaduct. Both traverse the old Hollow Way.&nbsp; In the image above, the photographer would be standing just above the “M” in “Manhattanville.”</span></span><br /><pre><a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TRukrRaugWI/AAAAAAAAAek/_89xN8mIOQ4/s1600-h/viadcuct%201%5B6%5D.jpg"><img alt="viadcuct 1" border="0" height="463" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TRuksP9b98I/AAAAAAAAAeo/8_aambG7_Nc/viadcuct%201_thumb%5B4%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border: 0px none; display: inline;" title="viadcuct 1" width="530" /></a> <span style="font-size: xx-small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">&nbsp;</span></span></pre>Here's the Riverside Drive viaduct (farther back in the above image). 125th Street goes through the wide arch while St. Clair Place goes through the narrower arch. See the street sign for 129th Street intersecting 125th Street!?&nbsp; That's part of the story which we'll see soon.&nbsp; This viaduct was built in 1900; the one for the subway was built shortly after.<br /><br /><a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TRuks4ze5FI/AAAAAAAAAes/DzOfgBDXLtA/s1600-h/viaduct%202%5B5%5D.jpg"><img alt="viaduct 2" border="0" height="458" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TRuktXWVHnI/AAAAAAAAAew/KM7Bs6OR9zU/viaduct%202_thumb%5B3%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border: 0px none; display: inline;" title="viaduct 2" width="526" /></a> <br /><span style="font-family: inherit;">An old postcard view of the Riverside Drive viaduct from just north of Grant's Tomb. See the wider, slightly lower arch to the right of the lamp post?</span><br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TRuhmVrPIzI/AAAAAAAAAd8/9PLqPqvehJU/s1600/viaduct.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="358" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TRuhmVrPIzI/AAAAAAAAAd8/9PLqPqvehJU/s400/viaduct.jpeg" width="544" /></a></div><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;">Most of the west side of Manhattan is an ever-rising chain of plateaus followed by valleys, with an occasional drop all the way to sea-level before steeply rising again. And </span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">j</span>ust as people today opt for elevators instead of stairs and cluster their cars in parking lots close to supermarket, people in the past didn’t waste energy getting from point A to point B.&nbsp; </span><span style="font-size: small;">Before the grid was laid out scores of roads criss-crossed town linking travelers to ferry terminals and bridges (the few that there were), and to other locales within the city.</span><span style="font-family: inherit;"> With the coming of the subway (and perhaps even moreso cars) topographical considerations became a non-issue when traveling. Only skaters and bikers consider hills when planning a trip through Manhattan. </span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;">One side effect of this paradigm shift in mass movement has been an interesting case of historical geographic amnesia. Considering the wear on horses, or a foot-traveler's exertion, if there were viable alternatives</span><span style="font-size: small;">, </span><span style="font-family: inherit;">why would someone climb a hill just to go down again? We'll take a closer look at that in a moment.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;">Another mind eraser has been Central Park. In addition to the people displaced by the creation of the park in the mid-1800s (perhaps most famously from Seneca Village) many old roads were also obliterated. Let’s resurrect a few old roads, starting a bit farther downtown.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;">Union Square and Madison Square <strike>Parks</strike> <i>(technically it's simply Madison Square, and not Madison Square "Park," 1/3/11) </i>were once inextricably linked as functionaries of the pre-grid road system. Together they worked from 14th Street to 26th Street as a nexus point for travelers, acting as a sort of switching station.&nbsp; </span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;">The image below is of both parks. Just below Union Square a number of roads converged, three of which can still be seen today (in fact it’s why it's called “Union” Square). From right to left the roads entering Union Square are: The Bowery (the oldest), Broadway (being paved up to this point by the late 1830s), and University Place (formerly Wooster Street, but named for NYU in 1838). </span><br /><pre><a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TR0Znx_uJ2I/AAAAAAAAAf0/Kz9SUGQmrjQ/s1600-h/clip_image008%5B1%5D.jpg"><img alt="clip_image008" border="0" height="476" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TRrDaLk4WUI/AAAAAAAAAf4/ExL4-LnKhyQ/clip_image008_thumb.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border: 0px none; display: inline;" title="clip_image008" width="546" /></a></pre><span style="font-family: inherit;">Broadway leaves the top left corner of Union Square and slices past the lower left corner of Madison Square at 23rd Street. </span><span style="font-family: inherit;">As an interesting side note, there is no Broadway between 14th and 17th Streets! </span><br /><br /><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Here’s an old view from the top of Union Square looking south.&nbsp; (I left out University Place, but Washington Square Park and Fifth Avenue are shown.)</span></span><br /><pre>&nbsp;<a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TRrDa1nFeOI/AAAAAAAAAf8/c1RB9c9JFvg/s1600-h/clip_image010%5B1%5D.jpg"><img alt="clip_image010" border="0" height="418" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TRrDbfs13dI/AAAAAAAAAgE/qJ9cYUVOsyg/clip_image010_thumb.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border: 0px none; display: inline;" title="clip_image010" width="541" /></a></pre><span style="font-family: inherit;">If a traveler were heading north along any of these three uptown roads from Union Square, they were in an area called The Common Land. Going a few "blocks" farther, they could choose from a host of uptown roads to continue their journey. Together the two parks constituted a hub for foot, cart and carriage traffic, a half-mile long switching station.&nbsp; <br /></span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;">Below is an 1828 view of Madison Square <strike>Park</strike> from <i>As You Pass By</i>, by Kenneth Dunshee (21 years earlier than the view of Union Square above, a few blocks away--and we think the city changes fast today!). The view is looking north from 21st Street along Broadway where it transitioned to the Bloomingdale Road (going off into the horizon in the picture).&nbsp; The Bloomingdale Road was</span><span style="font-family: inherit;"> the main road up the west side of the island</span><span style="font-family: inherit;"> to Morningside Heights. It would be widened in 1868 and renamed The Boulevard before becoming Broadway in 1899. The road turning to the right in front of the large building surrounded by the wall (originally an arsenal converted for use as the House of Refuge for Juvenile Delinquents), is the Boston Post Road. Though you can’t see it in the image, once you made the right turn onto the Boston Post Road, a number of other roads opened up before the traveler. </span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br />Except for today's Broadway, </span><span style="font-family: inherit;">none of the old roads leading out of the area of Madison Square exist today.</span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><br /><a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TRrDbw2Bn6I/AAAAAAAAAgM/jZ6jxe-9tkI/s1600-h/clip_image012%5B1%5D.jpg" style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="439" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TRrDciSp66I/AAAAAAAAAgY/khJAW34SQ7g/clip_image012_thumb.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border: 0px none;" width="578" /></a><br />Important note: The Boston Post Road, and different parts of it, had a number of names through history, including: the Wecksequageck Road, the Kingsbridge Road, and the Eastern Post Road. Old roads were forever tapping into new roads, and new roads were always being built while old ones straightened out, leaving a historical path of nomenclative chaos and destruction up and down the island. <br /><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;">Just because it's interesting, here is the same view today looking up Broadway from 21st Street. It's hard to imagine the gambrel roofs, gable peaks, chimneys and porches of 1828! The tall, beautiful building to the left is an uncharacteristic view of the Flat Iron building. The Bloomingdale Road is Broadway today, and bears to the left of the small building in the middle of the street in the distance. The Boston Post Road no longer exists. Fifth Avenue bears to the right of the small building, past the trees of Madison Square <strike>Park</strike> and continues up past the Empire State Building (see it there?). If Fifth Avenue were shown in the above picture, it would crash diagonally across the scene, right through the House of Refuge.</span> <br /><pre><a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TRrDdn9HbfI/AAAAAAAAAgc/nL0q-BCSms8/s1600-h/clip_image014%5B1%5D.jpg"><img alt="clip_image014" border="0" height="500" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TRrDeV1aSQI/AAAAAAAAAgo/_QNKa-CD298/clip_image014_thumb.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border: 0px none; display: inline;" title="clip_image014" width="574" /></a></pre>Now let’s look at the bigger picture and at some of the roads that started out from this area. Below is an image of Manhattan from 14th Street to around 125th, including <span style="font-family: inherit;">Morningside Heights in the upper left--notice the green arc of Morningside Park<i> </i>near the top left corner of Central Park.</span><br /><br />Here were the main roads that led uptown starting at around 23rd Street. They're color coordinated with the map below, along with the years they existed before the grid. <br /><br /><div style="background-color: black; color: black;"><span style="color: lime;">The Bloomingdale Road (early 1700s - late 1800s). Much of it exists as Broadway today.</span><span style="color: yellow;">&nbsp;</span><br /><div style="color: #c27ba0;">The Kingsbridge Road (early 1700s - late 1800s). This is a remnant of the old Wecksequageck Road, following today's St. Nicholas Avenue. </div><span style="color: magenta;">&nbsp;</span><span style="color: yellow;">The Boston, aka Eastern Post Road (early 1700s - mid 1800s).&nbsp; This route was originally the </span><span style="color: yellow;">Wecksequageck</span><span style="color: yellow;"> Road. </span></div><div style="background-color: black; color: cyan;"><div style="color: white;">The West Road, aka Albany Avenue (1805 - mid 1800s). Generally followed today's Sixth Avenue, inlcuding through Central Park.</div>The Middle Road (late 1700s - mid 1800s).&nbsp; Generally followed today's Fifth Avenue.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TRurTN51HBI/AAAAAAAAAfk/ubCQe89K4Wk/s1600/14-MH+BPR%252C+KBR%252C+BR%252C+MR%252C+AAi.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="550" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TRurTN51HBI/AAAAAAAAAfk/ubCQe89K4Wk/s640/14-MH+BPR%252C+KBR%252C+BR%252C+MR%252C+AAi.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">To be sure, </span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">many more roads branched off, merged and diverged from these main roads, along with myriad cross town streets, all the way uptown. These, though, were the main arteries.</span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">&nbsp; As well, dozens more cart lanes, paths and roads entered the Union Square-Madison Square area from all sides linking places like Chelsea, the Village, Kips Bay, and Belle Vue. </span><br style="font-family: inherit;" /><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br />Broadway is often described as the main cosmopolitan thoroughfare and an old Native American path—the "road of roads." But <i>that </i>historic Broadway is downtown; throughout most of history the section of Broadway from 23rd Street to Morningside Heights was a country road named by the Dutch for its beauty and its “vale of blooms.”&nbsp; Though the Bloomingdale Road was considered a "main thoroughfare," the road most used to go in and out of town was the Boston Post Road through its many names and incarnations. <br /></span><br style="font-family: inherit;" /><span style="font-family: inherit;">An excerpt from <i>Valentine’s Manual of Old New York, 1923</i> of Laura Dayton Fessenden’s reminiscences gives an idea of the nature of this part of town, along with the people who traveled the Bloomingdale Road.</span></span><br /><blockquote><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">When I was a little girl, in 1867-1868, the upper part of Manhattan Island, on the west or Hudson River side and north of 59th Street, was suburban.</span></span></blockquote><blockquote><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">There was one line of street cars that penetrated ''through the quiet" at stated intervals (but never on schedule time) to the jingling of not unmusical harness bells. The route was up Eighth Avenue, and Eighth Avenue skirted the west side of Central Park, as it does to-day, and Central Park was in 1867 a comparatively new city acquisition.</span></span><br /><br /><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">There was also once in every two or three hours (I think it was from six in the morning until six at night) a stage line that followed the windings of the Bloomingdale Road (now Broadway) through Bloomingdale, Manhattanville, Carmansville and on to Washington</span></span><br /><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Heights.</span></span><br /><br /><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">It might be interesting to mention en passant that the people who used these street cars and stages were mostly known to one another, not perhaps personally, but as belonging to the same country-side neighborhood.</span></span><br /><br /><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">As an instance of this fact, I recall a tall, dark, sallow man, who always wore a cloak and who was a tea merchant. He was a brother of Susan B. Anthony and, as Miss Anthony was then considered to be a young woman of startlingly progressive ideas, we children gazed upon her brother with interest. Then along the Bloomingdale Road there lived a colony of actors, and Mr. Joseph Jefferson's little daughter, who afterward married the English novelist, Fairjohn, was almost like going to the theatre to ride beside in the car or the stage.</span></span><br /><br /><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The stages only ran on week days, for an old observance of the Sabbath was still held in half remembrance in New York. Of course, there had been a great change since 1830, for in his book, "The Last Days of Knickerbocker Life in New York," my father says: "When the church bells had ceased tolling and services were about to commence, heavy iron chains were drawn tightly across the streets containing the 'Houses of Worship' and only the doctor's gig, on an errand of mercy, was allowed to pass through the barred roadway"; and again he says: "Sometimes on a lovely summer afternoon a brave sinner would get out his carriage and pair for a drive from town into the country, knowing that for this lapse, and an indefinite period thereafter, he would be a subject for intercession at family evening prayers."</span></span><br /><br /><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">To go back to the stage route in 1867, by the time 60th Street was reached the Bloomingdale Road and the contiguous neighborhood became country stretches of land, filled with lovely homes, many of them like Marshall Hall at 92nd Street, having been the country seats of representative New York families since pre-Revolutionary times.</span></span></blockquote><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The coach line along Eighth Avenue that Fessenden mentions opened in 1851 and originally extended only to 59th, a relatively recent development in the scheme of things.&nbsp; Still, even with that additional transit line, it seems those who traveled the Bloomingdale Road did so because they lived in the area, they were visiting (or going themselves) to any of charitable institutions or houses of refuge in the area, or they were out for a ride in the country (which was a popular pastime). But it wasn't a completely cloistered part of town; there were inns, hotels and taverns up and down the west side. Yet, if one were on business, or simply entering or exiting the city, today’s Broadway on the west side was just about the last route you’d opt for. <br /><br />And the names of the roads say a lot: The “Post” road was for destinations upstate and New England; it’s not a puzzler to figure why “Albany Avenue” was so named; and the Middle Road is self-described. But Bloomingdale, in addition to being a description of the whole of the bucolic west side, was a village at around West 100th Street. And though by Ms. Fessenden's time the Bloomingdale Road passed through Mornignside Heights to points beyond, it originally <i>ended </i>at the top of Morningside Heights and was, in effect, a west side cul-de-sac. </span><br style="font-family: inherit;" /><br style="font-family: inherit;" /><span style="font-family: inherit;">It’s also an indication of traffic that there were <i>so many </i>roads branching off the Boston Post Road so far downtown, going in the same basic direction. There appears not to have been the demand on the Bloomingdale Road that there was on the Boston Post Road, such as it was to necessitate <i>at least </i>two additional parallel roads to accommodate the traffic.</span><span style="font-family: inherit;">&nbsp;</span></span><br /><br /><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Even if you were going to the village of Manhattanville just above Morningside Heights (or delivering goods <i>from </i>the ferry terminals), it made sense to skirt around Morningside Heights. And those roads are actually still there!</span></span> <br /><pre><a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TRrDhesq1aI/AAAAAAAAAgw/ItabZtSO7bE/s1600-h/clip_image018%5B1%5D.jpg"><img alt="clip_image018" border="0" height="489" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TRrDiQyQftI/AAAAAAAAAg4/zzhrzuGZKXA/clip_image018_thumb%5B1%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border: 0px none; display: inline;" title="clip_image018" width="562" /></a>&nbsp;&nbsp; </pre>Today, three separate roads link together to make the old route that bypassed Morningside Heights leading to the ferry terminals and the village of Manhattanville. The route is formed by St. Nicholas Avenue (yellow)-Hancock Place (white)-125th Street (green). The old path went: Kingsbridge Road-the fork in the road-Manhattan Road. <br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TRus15NxY7I/AAAAAAAAAfo/zD8SLYAgL1Y/s1600/Manhattan+Road.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="551" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TRus15NxY7I/AAAAAAAAAfo/zD8SLYAgL1Y/s640/Manhattan+Road.JPG" style="border: 0px none;" width="640" /></a></div><br />The solid green line in the image below is 125th Street, on the grid proper. So intransigent was the route that 125th conformed to it! That's why 129th Street intersects it.&nbsp;&nbsp; <br /><pre><a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TRrDjS7oMtI/AAAAAAAAAhA/ciKCWguddPU/s1600-h/clip_image020%5B2%5D.jpg"><img alt="clip_image020" border="0" height="570" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TRrDkRhhryI/AAAAAAAAAhI/ubcZozR-MWw/clip_image020_thumb%5B1%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border: 0px none; display: inline;" title="clip_image020" width="654" /></a></pre>Below is and old postcard view from 1865 of the Kingsbridge Road somewhere along the yellow dotted line leading from Central Park on the way to Manhattanville. Though it’s labeled “Harlem-Lane from Central Park to Manhattanville” the road was more generally known as the Kingsbridge Road (and is today’s St. Nicholas Avenue). <br /><pre><a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TRrDlETg6wI/AAAAAAAAAdo/uw82LFb4-zE/s1600-h/clip_image022%5B1%5D.jpg"><img alt="clip_image022" border="0" height="410" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TRrDmtxbKLI/AAAAAAAAAds/ga_lE2s4yRU/clip_image022_thumb%5B1%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="clip_image022" width="578" /></a></pre>Back on the Bloomingdale Road, here’s a picture from before it became The Boulevard, and then ultimately Broadway.&nbsp; The Palisades appear to be in the background. <br /><pre><a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TRrDnUzsQ2I/AAAAAAAAAfU/O5xLPcNsBE4/s1600-h/clip_image024%5B9%5D.jpg"><img alt="clip_image024" border="0" height="486" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TRrDoZcc6FI/AAAAAAAAAfc/ilHp7enmbpg/clip_image024_thumb%5B8%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border: 0px none; display: inline;" title="clip_image024" width="594" /></a></pre>Some of the theories I’ve heard and read explaining the difference between the east and west sides of the city are that: 1. the west side developed later than the east side; 2. the Tweed scandal of the 1870s set development of the west side back a generation; 3. real estate investors and speculators put their money in the east side earlier. All of these make sense and are true, but even they don't explain why the two neighborhoods would have such different characters. And the reason all those things <i>are</i> true probably has to do with the fact that the east side of the city always had much more traffic. And not just more traffic, more <i>cosmopolitan </i>traffic--in a city that was the very definition of the term!<br /><br />The Bloomingdale Road may have been a main thoroughfare, but it wasn’t a "through" street for many years, and when it was, there were many smarter, more energy efficient ways to travel through the city. Commerce absolutely would have preferred to flow up and down the east side rather than deal with the west's terrain. With commerce comes people, ideas, and "energy," everything that defines a city.&nbsp; <br /><br />It doesn’t help matters either that the old suburban road carries the name Broadway today, making it easy to infer that it has some relationship with the Broadway made famous for its shops, theaters, hotels and the hustle and bustle of city life.<br /><br />The suburban, more quiet disposition of the west side has existed throughout history, and in relative terms has carried down to today. <span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">That's why the west side is different.&nbsp;&nbsp;</span></span><br /><br /><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TRug8--yIJI/AAAAAAAAAd4/-kwSnHKo_Yg/s1600/Manhattan+island+done.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="504" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TRug8--yIJI/AAAAAAAAAd4/-kwSnHKo_Yg/s640/Manhattan+island+done.JPG" width="590" /></a><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">&nbsp;</span></span><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/ManhattanUnlocked/~4/0u2yQnGfCbg" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>Robert Amellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06084801755976271616noreply@blogger.com7http://manhattanunlocked.blogspot.com/2010/12/why-west-side-is-different.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2681192941667483351.post-38740839125069331302010-12-21T03:53:00.002-05:002011-02-16T21:35:24.658-05:00Lunar Eclipse, Every 15 MinutesThe last time a lunar eclipse occurred on the winter solstice was in 1638.&nbsp;&nbsp; Back then, New Amsterdam had a population of about 300 people speaking more than a dozen languages.&nbsp; If the eclipse had been visible in this part of the world, here’s what they would have seen…<br /><a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TRBq5DCwH_I/AAAAAAAAAbU/pjDbYaY5xKw/s1600-h/IMG_1323%5B4%5D.jpg"><img alt="IMG_1323" border="0" height="388" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TRBq51gg_EI/AAAAAAAAAbY/H5qQDzTMmbo/IMG_1323_thumb%5B2%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="IMG_1323" width="505" /></a> <br /><a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TRBq6FAzorI/AAAAAAAAAbc/3F-5as2n9p8/s1600-h/IMG_1326%5B4%5D.jpg"><img alt="IMG_1326" border="0" height="392" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TRBq6yUEGXI/AAAAAAAAAbg/5cs5e0BiQtQ/IMG_1326_thumb%5B2%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="IMG_1326" width="512" /></a> <br /><a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TRBq7crb37I/AAAAAAAAAbk/-PYoZER9Avo/s1600-h/IMG_1332%5B3%5D.jpg"><img alt="IMG_1332" border="0" height="392" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TRBq7mCm-LI/AAAAAAAAAbo/WNxv7U5_OjQ/IMG_1332_thumb%5B1%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="IMG_1332" width="514" /></a><br /><a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TRBq8FXHMNI/AAAAAAAAAbs/pCrVVFP0MS4/s1600-h/IMG_1340%5B5%5D.jpg"><img alt="IMG_1340" border="0" height="404" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TRBq8vNTQZI/AAAAAAAAAbw/9A81anBwYuU/IMG_1340_thumb%5B3%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="IMG_1340" width="524" /></a> <br /><a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TRBq9ey9BlI/AAAAAAAAAb0/1djYBVEuqnA/s1600-h/IMG_1348%5B4%5D.jpg"><img alt="IMG_1348" border="0" height="406" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TRBq9wrlOHI/AAAAAAAAAb4/wUqrO3d6z4I/IMG_1348_thumb%5B2%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="IMG_1348" width="529" /></a> <br /><a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TRBq-en0oGI/AAAAAAAAAb8/Z2mxZ_8tJck/s1600-h/IMG_1353%5B4%5D.jpg"><img alt="IMG_1353" border="0" height="412" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TRBq-3HaS1I/AAAAAAAAAcA/ltjAUE4QBGM/IMG_1353_thumb%5B2%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="IMG_1353" width="537" /></a><br /><a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TRBq_QWd8II/AAAAAAAAAcE/VMB_9TZKR-w/s1600-h/IMG_1364%5B4%5D.jpg"><img alt="IMG_1364" border="0" height="413" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TRBq_nrm7LI/AAAAAAAAAcI/5obE0BYvYZs/IMG_1364_thumb%5B2%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="IMG_1364" width="539" /></a> <br /><a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TRBrADd5SYI/AAAAAAAAAcM/l3R8ZdLiFD0/s1600-h/IMG_1367%5B4%5D.jpg"><img alt="IMG_1367" border="0" height="417" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TRBrAfry8iI/AAAAAAAAAcQ/SRoJqOFvOSw/IMG_1367_thumb%5B2%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="IMG_1367" width="545" /></a><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/ManhattanUnlocked/~4/juMdJ8eg0Qw" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>Robert Amellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06084801755976271616noreply@blogger.com6http://manhattanunlocked.blogspot.com/2010/12/lunar-eclipse-every-15-minutes.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2681192941667483351.post-29894435798910231602010-12-17T14:06:00.024-05:002011-02-16T21:35:04.087-05:00The Holiday Spirit Around Town<blockquote></blockquote>…and a few special links.&nbsp;&nbsp; <br /><br />The Solow Building, 9 W57th Street (the best surface for skating!)<br /><a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TQuz7prrfDI/AAAAAAAAAWA/bmJBDTdnhfQ/s1600-h/solow%5B7%5D.jpg"><img alt="solow" border="0" height="385" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TQuz8aJSVVI/AAAAAAAAAWE/ijF-Vk8khas/solow_thumb%5B5%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="solow" width="507" /></a> <br />From down the block…<br /><a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TQuz9URTmgI/AAAAAAAAAWI/U7s_mI4ZMp4/s1600-h/IMG_1023%5B4%5D.jpg"><img alt="IMG_1023" border="0" height="384" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TQuz-Hoz9sI/AAAAAAAAAWM/sp9Ti63BUMQ/IMG_1023_thumb%5B2%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="IMG_1023" width="505" /></a> <br />The Exxon Building, 1251 6th Avenue<br /><a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TQuz-6m8MMI/AAAAAAAAAWQ/zQDwWY7Q_qw/s1600-h/exxon%20i%5B3%5D.jpg"><img alt="exxon i" border="0" height="357" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TQuz_sv_v2I/AAAAAAAAAWU/Di3uEwjNTDc/exxon%20i_thumb%5B1%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="exxon i" width="511" /></a> <br />Trump Tower, 721 Fifth Avenue.&nbsp; Two things: Fifth Avenue is always spelled out, and this building looks like this all the time. <br /><a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TQu0AW-0V6I/AAAAAAAAAWY/LXdkV4HfJ68/s1600-h/IMG_0991%5B3%5D.jpg"><img alt="IMG_0991" border="0" height="389" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TQu0BNb7vhI/AAAAAAAAAWc/JhYDXxN4TdU/IMG_0991_thumb%5B1%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="IMG_0991" width="510" /></a> <br />This is what the rest of it looks like for the holidays…<br /><a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TQu0CADW-LI/AAAAAAAAAWg/N8MoSLqS3a0/s1600-h/IMG_0992%5B4%5D.jpg"><img alt="IMG_0992" border="0" height="407" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TQu0C8q3l9I/AAAAAAAAAWk/qlfxhjgydMY/IMG_0992_thumb%5B2%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="IMG_0992" width="531" /></a> <br /><a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TQu0DwLQ00I/AAAAAAAAAWo/AFbEaEKBQmQ/s1600-h/IMG_0989%5B8%5D.jpg"><img alt="IMG_0989" border="0" height="411" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TQu0EskDLDI/AAAAAAAAAWs/MIPc-p7EXAY/IMG_0989_thumb%5B4%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="IMG_0989" width="536" /></a> <br />Barneys, 660 Madison Avenue, used celebrity chefs for their window dressing.&nbsp; The men are in a food fight which Mario Batali appears to have lost, his head on a platter surrounded by orange crocs.&nbsp; Happy Holidays?<br /><a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TQu0FlcjKCI/AAAAAAAAAWw/wGTyuTMIRPY/s1600-h/IMG_1002%5B3%5D.jpg"><img alt="IMG_1002" border="0" height="410" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TQu0Gez-DoI/AAAAAAAAAW0/NkKBEH4VN5Q/IMG_1002_thumb%5B1%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="IMG_1002" width="538" /></a> <br />Here are the women, who display more decorum.&nbsp; Though someone appears to be in the oven underneath Martha Stewart. Weird. <br /><a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TQu0HPA32kI/AAAAAAAAAW4/smlAEht9q-Y/s1600-h/IMG_1004%5B3%5D.jpg"><img alt="IMG_1004" border="0" height="415" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TQu0HoGdFvI/AAAAAAAAAW8/c23oeyRaCKM/IMG_1004_thumb%5B1%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="IMG_1004" width="545" /></a> <br />The Pulitzer Fountain in front of The Plaza, 768 Fifth Avenue.<br /><a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TQu0JGffTQI/AAAAAAAAAXA/HjpFTbmlcUA/s1600-h/Pulitzer%5B3%5D.jpg"><img alt="Pulitzer" border="0" height="406" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TQu0J7ZJzzI/AAAAAAAAAXE/jyjgZpyvquE/Pulitzer_thumb%5B1%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="Pulitzer" width="550" /></a> <br />Nutcracker on 6th Avenue<br /><a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TQu0KXh9ycI/AAAAAAAAAXI/Ybqb1DRGwf0/s1600-h/IMG_0986%5B3%5D.jpg"><img alt="IMG_0986" border="0" height="375" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TQu0K59nVaI/AAAAAAAAAXM/N2NDUVChFtA/IMG_0986_thumb%5B1%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: block; float: none; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" title="IMG_0986" width="286" /></a>&nbsp; <br />Bryant Park’s blue lighted tree…<br /><a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TQu0LpMQ8SI/AAAAAAAAAXQ/aUTVs_lctcE/s1600-h/Bryant%20Park%5B3%5D.jpg"><img alt="Bryant Park" border="0" height="430" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TQu0MITvQlI/AAAAAAAAAXU/g-E3B5VaSk8/Bryant%20Park_thumb%5B1%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="Bryant Park" width="565" /></a> <br />Rockefeller Center…<br /><a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TQu0M_KCTkI/AAAAAAAAAXY/BtJsOoaHlgI/s1600-h/IMG_1146%5B4%5D.jpg"><img alt="IMG_1146" border="0" height="380" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TQu0NdtP_mI/AAAAAAAAAXc/37Czdx5feeg/IMG_1146_thumb%5B2%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="IMG_1146" width="292" /></a>&nbsp;&nbsp; <a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TQu0OJj6q5I/AAAAAAAAAXg/nvQe-Co0mVk/s1600-h/rockii%5B8%5D.jpg"><img align="right" alt="rockii" border="0" height="262" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TQu0OslfB9I/AAAAAAAAAXk/UvVstPnUPlY/rockii_thumb%5B4%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px;" title="rockii" width="343" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TQu0PXbSXLI/AAAAAAAAAXo/b91sMi9PY4c/s1600-h/radio%20city%5B5%5D.jpg"><img alt="radio city" border="0" height="711" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TQu0ROwYDLI/AAAAAAAAAXs/4DMECidgrvI/radio%20city_thumb%5B3%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="radio city" width="546" /></a> <br /><br /><a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TQu0SQ4k1yI/AAAAAAAAAXw/jSnbxoZg9Eg/s1600-h/rock%5B8%5D.jpg"><img alt="rock" border="0" height="714" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TQu0TulrReI/AAAAAAAAAX0/JjpJBelwiI4/rock_thumb%5B6%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: block; float: none; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" title="rock" width="548" /></a><br /><a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TQu0UWUM1TI/AAAAAAAAAX8/CIJ2GR034Is/s1600-h/rockiiii%5B4%5D.jpg"><img alt="rockiiii" border="0" height="414" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TQu0VOZLtCI/AAAAAAAAAYA/L8xsu1KO2qU/rockiiii_thumb%5B2%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: block; float: none; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" title="rockiiii" width="545" /></a> <br /><a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TQu0V-LNCDI/AAAAAAAAAYE/fs_85bOjqXk/s1600-h/rockiii%5B6%5D.jpg"><img alt="rockiii" border="0" height="569" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TQu0XKJhKHI/AAAAAAAAAYI/dAxS1RaXr-E/rockiii_thumb%5B4%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="rockiii" width="533" /></a><br />The Snowflake hanging over Fifth Avenue at 57th Street, and the Crown Building<br /><a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TQu0XxFq3NI/AAAAAAAAAYM/sZFsryH3_Vo/s1600-h/snowflake%5B3%5D.jpg"><img alt="snowflake" border="0" height="456" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TQu0YhOdVTI/AAAAAAAAAYQ/Z37Ypj_ax5o/snowflake_thumb%5B1%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="snowflake" width="518" /></a> <br />Midtown lobby trees…<br /><a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TQu0ZLCkObI/AAAAAAAAAYU/278UUkV1rIE/s1600-h/50i%5B5%5D.jpg"><img align="left" alt="50i" border="0" height="401" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TQu0Zh111oI/AAAAAAAAAYY/bQOPi9nRbfc/50i_thumb%5B3%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px;" title="50i" width="309" /></a><br />The Exxon Building <br />1251 6th Avenue…<br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />&nbsp;…comes with a wreath.<br /><a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TQu0aaC165I/AAAAAAAAAYc/NtjShsSKBdc/s1600-h/50th%5B5%5D.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img alt="50th" border="0" height="217" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TQu0asf1XaI/AAAAAAAAAYg/zfHWluxdrn4/50th_thumb%5B3%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="50th" width="277" /></a><br /><a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TQu0bZacztI/AAAAAAAAAYk/V8I6U73amUU/s1600-h/Viacom%5B8%5D.jpg"><img align="right" alt="Viacom" border="0" height="423" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TQu0b4V4D1I/AAAAAAAAAYo/IjzHscvJodE/Viacom_thumb%5B6%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px;" title="Viacom" width="333" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />The Bertelsmann Building<br />1540 Broadway<br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TQu0chqQz7I/AAAAAAAAAYs/4KsxFZpsDtk/s1600-h/millennium%20hotel%5B5%5D.jpg"><img align="left" alt="millennium hotel" border="0" height="476" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TQu0dGDSX_I/AAAAAAAAAYw/-DGrMkM2NBs/millennium%20hotel_thumb%5B3%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px;" title="millennium hotel" width="359" /></a> <br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />The Millennium Hotel<br />145 west 44th Street<br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><div align="center">The New York Public Library…</div><a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TQu0dsLoMiI/AAAAAAAAAY0/KgsXTn-O9hc/s1600-h/NYPL%5B4%5D.jpg"><img alt="NYPL" border="0" height="595" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TQu0eiWMMaI/AAAAAAAAAY4/TjfSIX4fhIk/NYPL_thumb%5B2%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: block; float: none; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" title="NYPL" width="456" /></a> <br />…has the best ornaments…<br /><a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TQu0fTvSjOI/AAAAAAAAAY8/_lwXpfJ-d30/s1600-h/NYPLi%5B3%5D.jpg"><img alt="NYPLi" border="0" height="281" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TQu0f7eSUGI/AAAAAAAAAZA/P5psVMjtnNs/NYPLi_thumb%5B1%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="NYPLi" width="369" /></a> <br /><a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TQu0gehB7-I/AAAAAAAAAZE/gBDb6VQNg2w/s1600-h/nypl%20ii%5B3%5D.jpg"><img align="right" alt="nypl ii" border="0" height="256" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TQu0g9WY-NI/AAAAAAAAAZI/BRiBYpo5mYo/nypl%20ii_thumb%5B1%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px;" title="nypl ii" width="377" /></a> <br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />Happy Hanukkah…<br /><a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TQu0hRt9cII/AAAAAAAAAZM/uqIMdzwy9-s/s1600-h/IMG_1007%5B10%5D.jpg"><img alt="IMG_1007" border="0" height="426" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TQu0iOKZmkI/AAAAAAAAAZQ/d06VflgR5HU/IMG_1007_thumb%5B8%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="IMG_1007" width="561" /></a> <br />Macy’s…<br /><a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TQu0i0nyYzI/AAAAAAAAAZU/FrePTvIA6i4/s1600-h/IMG_1074%5B4%5D.jpg"><img alt="IMG_1074" border="0" height="431" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TQu0jlIA86I/AAAAAAAAAZY/2zPTLGZ5aOY/IMG_1074_thumb%5B2%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="IMG_1074" width="563" /></a> <br />Macy’s dual holiday theme is <i>Miracle on 34th Street</i> and <i>Yes, Virginia, There is a Santa Claus</i>. Unfortunately, there was too much reflection in the windows to get good pictures…&nbsp; <br /><a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TQu0k2nxFcI/AAAAAAAAAZc/4Hz9e_TnfyQ/s1600-h/IMG_1076%5B4%5D.jpg"><img alt="IMG_1076" border="0" height="438" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TQu0lsS9uTI/AAAAAAAAAZg/24qYhpsB9NQ/IMG_1076_thumb%5B2%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="IMG_1076" width="572" /></a> <br />But I remembered last year that Justin Ferate, preeminent NYC tour guide and selfless clearinghouse of all the best information, had forwarded this video of Virginia O’Hanlon reading the response she received to the letter she wrote to Frank Church in 1897, the editor of <i>The Sun</i>.&nbsp; She went on to receive her doctorate from Fordham University and wrote a dissertation on the importance of play in children’s lives. She eventually became a junior principal in Brooklyn at PS 401. Here’s the short letter she wrote that would elicit perhaps the most famous editorial of all time.<br /><div align="left"><br />Dear Editor: <br />I am 8 years old. Some of my little friends say there is no Santa Claus. Papa says, ‘if you see it in <i>The Sun</i> it’s so.’&nbsp; Please tell me the truth; is there a Santa Claus? <br />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Virginia O’Hanlon<br />115 West Ninety-fifth Street<br /><br />Virginia O’Hanlon herself, in her 70s, reading the letter <i>Yes, Virginia, There is a Santa Claus</i> in 1961…(Vintage WTEN) <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=28zUv0FRcBk">&lt;http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=28zUv0FRcBk&gt;</a></div><a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TQu0mm2T3rI/AAAAAAAAAZk/2XLLW80fGyM/s1600-h/IMG_1077%5B3%5D.jpg"><img alt="IMG_1077" border="0" height="408" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TQu0nWyQ-mI/AAAAAAAAAZo/sXIKKh_JeCM/IMG_1077_thumb%5B1%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="IMG_1077" width="536" /></a><br />And, if you like Christmas music, more gratitude to Justin Ferate for sending this link via Patricia Myers.&nbsp; <i>O Holy Night,</i> sung by Bryn Terfel. If you right click and open the the link in a new window you can then come back and look at the rose window (below) in Saint John the Divine.&nbsp; They go well together...<br /><a href="http://www.wqxr.org/articles/album-week/2010/dec/12/bryn-terfels-carols-and-christmas-songs/"><br />&lt;http://www.wqxr.org/articles/album-week/2010/dec/12/bryn-terfels-carols-and-christmas-songs/&gt;</a><br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TQv4zQEorQI/AAAAAAAAAZ0/Jazknuc-jpc/s1600/st.+john.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TQv4zQEorQI/AAAAAAAAAZ0/Jazknuc-jpc/s640/st.+john.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br />Merry Christmas!<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/ManhattanUnlocked/~4/BCZS3Ion7ow" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>Robert Amellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06084801755976271616noreply@blogger.com80http://manhattanunlocked.blogspot.com/2010/12/holiday-spirit-around-town.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2681192941667483351.post-37538300775691156692010-12-14T05:00:00.008-05:002011-03-12T03:30:28.967-05:00The Limelight: an Unholy EvolutionAs happens, while doing research on one project I stumbled on something so remarkable I thought it deserved its own post.&nbsp; At first I didn’t think it could be possible, but <i>Stoke’s Iconography (v. 3)</i> had this image from 1846 of a quaint little country church, that looked eerily familiar. Then I read the name: Church of the Holy Communion—the notorious Limelight on the corner of 6th Avenue and West 20th Street run by Peter Gatien in the 80s and 90s. <br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TQv7yJeXf_I/AAAAAAAAAaA/RgW2VpR_uR4/s1600-h/Limelight%20ii%5B3%5D.jpg"><img alt="Limelight ii" border="0" height="399" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TQv7y_ljgwI/AAAAAAAAAaE/I-HZhYMEBNk/Limelight%20ii_thumb%5B1%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border: 0px none; display: inline;" title="Limelight ii" width="529" /></a> </div><span style="font-size: xx-small;">&nbsp;<b>Stokes, I. N. Phelps</b> <i>The iconography of Manhattan Island, 1498-1909 </i>New York : Robert H. Dodd, 1915-1928.Electronic reproduction. v. 1-4. New York, N.Y. : Columbia University Libraries, 2008. JPEG use copy available via the World Wide Web. Master copy stored locally on [74] DVDs#: ldpd_5800727_001 01-13 ; ldpd_5800727_002 01-19 ; ldpd_5800727_003 01-16 ; ldpd_5800727_004 01-16.. <i>Columbia University Libraries Electronic Books.</i> 2006.<br /></span><br />I still didn’t believe it, but when I Google Earthed it there was no question it was the same building.&nbsp; The vantage point below is farther to the left of the above image.&nbsp;&nbsp; <br /><a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TQdATiEKt7I/AAAAAAAAAVk/eoLEPQoZz0I/s1600-h/Limelighttodayiii%5B3%5D.jpg"><img alt="Limelight today iii" border="0" height="467" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TQdAUrdKFSI/AAAAAAAAAVs/tP-rQJLRvMU/Limelighttodayiii_thumb%5B2%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="Limelight today iii" width="565" /></a> <br />It’s not as quaint as it seems though, according to <i>Stoke’s</i>, “<span style="font-family: georgia;">In the plate representing the Church of the Holy Communion,…[the] land</span><span style="font-family: georgia;">scape scenery has been substituted for the streets of the city, as more appropriate to the character </span>of the building.”&nbsp; Still, in the 1840s this part of 6th Avenue was a quiet residential part of town. The landmarked Gothic Revival church was designed by Richard Upjohn, the same architect of Trinity Church. <br /><br />Today it’s in the heart of the Ladies’ Mile Historic District, the middle class shopping mecca of the 1870s and 80s when an elevated train ran down 6th Avenue.&nbsp; The parish somehow survived all the <i>retail </i>mayhem only to have its former house of worship become the victim of a much more maniacal sort.&nbsp;&nbsp; <br /><br />The congregants moved on in the 1970s and the church (deconsecrated) became a drug rehab center, Odyssey House.&nbsp; Peter Gatien bought the property in 1982 and opened it as the Limelight (Andy Warhol hosted the opening night party).&nbsp; Drug dealing and bad publicity saw the place padlocked on-and-off until it was finally shuttered in 2001.&nbsp; What it’s most notorious for though is its connection to the 1996 murder and dismemberment of a denizen drug dealer by the club’s party promoter, Michael Alig (not on the grounds).&nbsp; Macaulay Culkin and Seth Green did the movie <i>Party Monster</i> based on the club and that event. <br /><br />Today it’s a boutique shopping mall, the Limelight Marketplace, and I went there not too long ago.&nbsp; It’s definitely a different kind of shopping experience; a maze of little “shops” in tiny nooks strung along walkways and narrow stairs that every so often reveal Gothic elements in the walls and ceilings.&nbsp; I also went there once in the 90s when it was the Limelight.&nbsp; Just once.<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/ManhattanUnlocked/~4/rxf7SWDEHOY" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>Robert Amellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06084801755976271616noreply@blogger.com7http://manhattanunlocked.blogspot.com/2010/12/limelight-unholy-evolution.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2681192941667483351.post-87827897778315179132010-12-10T18:51:00.004-05:002011-02-16T21:33:32.676-05:00Inwood Park Walk (pt. 2) & the Columbia “C” ExplainedHere’s the rest of Monday’s walk through Inwood Park, Manhattan’s last vestige of primeval forest.&nbsp; Not a lot of history discussed in this post, just pictures.<br /><br />A quick recap…this is the side of the park I entered through (on the west side of the Amtrak rails, and the West Side Highway)…<a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TQAY8TOvdrI/AAAAAAAAAP0/9u51Cr6_hRk/s1600-h/IMG_0805%5B6%5D.jpg"><img alt="IMG_0805" border="0" height="417" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TQAY9ImLPpI/AAAAAAAAAP4/USoKvZezYaE/IMG_0805_thumb%5B4%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="IMG_0805" width="540" /></a>&nbsp;&nbsp; <br />In the summers lots of soccer, little league, and barbeques.&nbsp; The Manhattan side tower of the George Washington Bridge in the distance….<br /><a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TQAY-aWNrdI/AAAAAAAAAP8/GubfrUIOTek/s1600-h/IMG_0806%5B12%5D.jpg"><img alt="IMG_0806" border="0" height="422" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TQAY_bpExYI/AAAAAAAAAQA/kVKWZbFDj6Q/IMG_0806_thumb%5B10%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="IMG_0806" width="548" /></a> <br />To get into the main park, the pedestrian bridge takes you over the Amtrak rails….<br /><a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TQAZALNduGI/AAAAAAAAAQI/L6jZaJocMX4/s1600-h/IMG_0807%5B10%5D.jpg"><img alt="IMG_0807" border="0" height="428" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TQAZBL60oyI/AAAAAAAAAQM/jDWDBGLx2Wo/IMG_0807_thumb%5B8%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="IMG_0807" width="559" /></a> <br />Then this tunnel takes you under the southbound Henry Hudson Parkway (past <i>The Tuft’s of Flowers</i> mosaic from the last post)….<br /><a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TQAZCArj6_I/AAAAAAAAAQQ/X8nqogBwZsc/s1600-h/IMG_0816%5B5%5D.jpg"><img alt="IMG_0816" border="0" height="433" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TQAZC2vgaPI/AAAAAAAAAQU/EgKKkGmVUFQ/IMG_0816_thumb%5B3%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="IMG_0816" width="566" /></a> <br />A little farther along up a hill, there’s another tunnel that takes you under the <i>northbound </i>Henry Hudson Parkway, and you come out here…. See the cars? They’re doing about 75 mph.&nbsp; The lamp posts are from the 1930s, installed during WPA (New Deal) projects…<br /><a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TQAZD7glXyI/AAAAAAAAAQY/sxiKoe2hRAY/s1600-h/IMG_0823%5B5%5D.jpg"><img alt="IMG_0823" border="0" height="437" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TQAZE5cErtI/AAAAAAAAAQc/DAoAwEx9PF4/IMG_0823_thumb%5B3%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="IMG_0823" width="571" /></a><br />A repeat picture from the last post, just because it’s so <i>Planet of the Apes</i>-like to see lamp posts like this…can you see both of them?<br /><a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TQA2Y-_eLqI/AAAAAAAAAU8/3UPtrHDMQwA/s1600-h/IMG_0813%5B4%5D.jpg"><img alt="IMG_0813" border="0" height="436" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TQA2ZzVKECI/AAAAAAAAAVA/B4oGQDcMaaI/IMG_0813_thumb%5B2%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="IMG_0813" width="574" /></a><br />Most of the paths are narrower than this, and not as well defined.&nbsp; I went the other way, and climbed more hill…<br /><a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TQAZGaEjDCI/AAAAAAAAAQg/nYiRDslHAKI/s1600-h/IMG_0825%5B5%5D.jpg"><img alt="IMG_0825" border="0" height="436" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TQAZHBE5pUI/AAAAAAAAAQk/SBDslHJOUPY/IMG_0825_thumb%5B3%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="IMG_0825" width="570" /></a> <br />From the hilltop, this is the <i>clearest</i> view you can get of the Cloister tower…<br /><a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TQAZIaZjxaI/AAAAAAAAAQo/pdMzAKUqi24/s1600-h/IMG_0828%5B5%5D.jpg"><img alt="IMG_0828" border="0" height="436" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TQAZJFN5AjI/AAAAAAAAAQs/xs7uMSl1VDQ/IMG_0828_thumb%5B3%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="IMG_0828" width="570" /></a> <br />And after a short walk farther along the hilltop, this…<br /><a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TQAZKoT5KVI/AAAAAAAAAQw/6J7mFlttQkw/s1600-h/IMG_0830%5B4%5D.jpg"><img alt="IMG_0830" border="0" height="446" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TQAZLeT2m-I/AAAAAAAAAQ0/3yYcQZKGEKs/IMG_0830_thumb%5B2%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="IMG_0830" width="581" /></a> <br />There are no really old trees surrounding this overlook, it must have once provided an unobstructed view. By the trampled leaves, it looks like people still find it though. <br /><a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TQAZMvAvRmI/AAAAAAAAAQ4/Ao8o2Qfcxh0/s1600-h/IMG_0831%5B5%5D.jpg"><img alt="IMG_0831" border="0" height="446" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TQAZNmGYKOI/AAAAAAAAAQ8/n5BiYioMPTg/IMG_0831_thumb%5B3%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="IMG_0831" width="582" /></a><br />It seems they expected quite a number of people back then…Look to the far left, I thought that was another entrance to the overlook.<br /><a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TQAZOsvq40I/AAAAAAAAARA/boHxQysL_Nc/s1600-h/IMG_0832%5B6%5D.jpg"><img alt="IMG_0832" border="0" height="447" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TQAZPmBiwZI/AAAAAAAAARE/-UMMVjb9Jc8/IMG_0832_thumb%5B4%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="IMG_0832" width="580" /></a>&nbsp; <br />&nbsp; …<br /><a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TQAZQvPK6oI/AAAAAAAAARI/ybQOz2kJV0w/s1600-h/IMG_0833%5B5%5D.jpg"><img alt="IMG_0833" border="0" height="441" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TQAZRlTyT4I/AAAAAAAAARM/APoDLL52xBw/IMG_0833_thumb%5B3%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="IMG_0833" width="577" /></a> <br />…obviously windstorm damage…<br /><a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TQAZSlntMDI/AAAAAAAAARQ/VKIjnIlqCps/s1600-h/IMG_0834%5B5%5D.jpg"><img alt="IMG_0834" border="0" height="440" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TQAZT_1ayAI/AAAAAAAAARU/RKV8_Di5Pfo/IMG_0834_thumb%5B3%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="IMG_0834" width="575" /></a> <br />If you’ve spent any time in a car in the metropolitan area, the radio always reported traffic conditions “under the apartments.”&nbsp; Those are them…&nbsp; <a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TQAZU56IzgI/AAAAAAAAARY/L8PkxI_nIoQ/s1600-h/IMG_0835%5B4%5D.jpg"><img alt="IMG_0835" border="0" height="437" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TQAZV_TY_YI/AAAAAAAAARc/c9gTn8MIFic/IMG_0835_thumb%5B2%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="IMG_0835" width="570" /></a> <br />…and a less obstructed view of the Cloister tower…<br /><a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TQAZWkvx7yI/AAAAAAAAARg/CWaZixTqXfY/s1600-h/IMG_0836%5B4%5D.jpg"><img alt="IMG_0836" border="0" height="440" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TQAZXgZLaCI/AAAAAAAAARk/mt4Fy-usLzA/IMG_0836_thumb%5B2%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="IMG_0836" width="573" /></a> <br />Leaving the overlook and continuing down the other side, just a few feet away…this really is Manhattan….<br /><a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TQAZYq6RxJI/AAAAAAAAARo/hKEPDOjsbJo/s1600-h/IMG_0838%5B4%5D.jpg"><img alt="IMG_0838" border="0" height="438" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TQAZZpr2t8I/AAAAAAAAARs/x_Sy_BTSFRA/IMG_0838_thumb%5B2%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="IMG_0838" width="572" /></a> <br />And then a real mystery….<br /><a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TQAZauwdC2I/AAAAAAAAARw/HYHeVeKdKkU/s1600-h/IMG_0839%5B5%5D.jpg"><img alt="IMG_0839" border="0" height="437" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TQAZbuQAAbI/AAAAAAAAAR0/NCw_k_QaBag/IMG_0839_thumb%5B3%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="IMG_0839" width="571" /></a>&nbsp; <br />And this…. <br /><a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TQAZc9byHFI/AAAAAAAAAR4/LNeyEF3NA1s/s1600-h/IMG_0840%5B5%5D.jpg"><img alt="IMG_0840" border="0" height="438" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TQAZd-Nk08I/AAAAAAAAAR8/YAGdidNOkAk/IMG_0840_thumb%5B3%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="IMG_0840" width="573" /></a> <br />Continuing over the crest…<br /><a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TQAZe45LoOI/AAAAAAAAASA/h7h5BLJNqiE/s1600-h/IMG_0841%5B5%5D.jpg"><img alt="IMG_0841" border="0" height="437" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TQAZgK5VvkI/AAAAAAAAASI/_NX1vAHDeIo/IMG_0841_thumb%5B3%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="IMG_0841" width="571" /></a> <br />…and along the path…<br /><a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TQAZhesh_mI/AAAAAAAAASM/NeIz-8MrUM0/s1600-h/IMG_0842%5B5%5D.jpg"><img alt="IMG_0842" border="0" height="441" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TQAZiUuIdtI/AAAAAAAAASQ/PCQIfL7gt08/IMG_0842_thumb%5B3%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="IMG_0842" width="577" /></a> <br />The clearest view I could get looking east from this altitude…. The Broadway Bridge leading to Riverdale (the Bronx) is the bluish metal structure to the left of the tree.&nbsp; The Tracey Towers, the tallest buildings in the Bronx (I think still), are the twin buildings in the distance.&nbsp; The white dome through the thicket are tennis courts across the Harlem River in Riverdale.<br /><a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TQAZjd0BxvI/AAAAAAAAASY/rZHZzlLPJnM/s1600-h/IMG_0843%5B5%5D.jpg"><img alt="IMG_0843" border="0" height="441" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TQAZkL3afcI/AAAAAAAAASc/5zKKuotVS68/IMG_0843_thumb%5B3%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="IMG_0843" width="577" /></a> <br />And one lone jogger passed by….<br /><a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TQAZk4ONcBI/AAAAAAAAASg/RZuEeU69bS4/s1600-h/IMG_0844%5B5%5D.jpg"><img alt="IMG_0844" border="0" height="438" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TQAZllaLJII/AAAAAAAAASk/S6Wvw2pXN2s/IMG_0844_thumb%5B3%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="IMG_0844" width="572" /></a> <br />And the Columbia “C” from high above.&nbsp; Painted by Columbia students in the 50s. Today I learned why it’s there! <br /><a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TQAZmmmt88I/AAAAAAAAASo/AmCdJ1RANPo/s1600-h/IMG_0845%5B5%5D.jpg"><img alt="IMG_0845" border="0" height="439" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TQAZndNus8I/AAAAAAAAASs/vz0dFCVE_uM/IMG_0845_thumb%5B3%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="IMG_0845" width="573" /></a> <br />But that’s in a bit.&nbsp; First there’s this…I have no idea.&nbsp; <br /><a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TQAZoV4JkAI/AAAAAAAAASw/1NDxwFDtNRM/s1600-h/IMG_0849%5B5%5D.jpg"><img alt="IMG_0849" border="0" height="435" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TQAZpGPAG_I/AAAAAAAAAS0/sfHJwFPVQV8/IMG_0849_thumb%5B3%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="IMG_0849" width="569" /><br /><br /></a>Assuming they were never moved, what could this have been a foundation for?&nbsp; On a less cold day I will go back and do some forensics. That’s a serious foundation slab…if you know, please speak up…..<br /><a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TQAZqBjWnSI/AAAAAAAAAS4/CU_vJzpTvs0/s1600-h/IMG_0851%5B6%5D.jpg"><img alt="IMG_0851" border="0" height="457" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TQAZrDOHbZI/AAAAAAAAAS8/rWJIz51yVcY/IMG_0851_thumb%5B4%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="IMG_0851" width="594" /></a><br />I took the steep way down…some of these are looking back on my descent…<br />&nbsp;<a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TQAZsLEkAqI/AAAAAAAAATA/UH50M9fVztI/s1600-h/IMG_0853%5B5%5D.jpg"><img alt="IMG_0853" border="0" height="450" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TQAZtJsOHuI/AAAAAAAAATE/ZuB_p_m2aj0/IMG_0853_thumb%5B3%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="IMG_0853" width="590" /></a> <br /><br /><a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TQAZuKiuSqI/AAAAAAAAATI/5qVj7yLxNCw/s1600-h/IMG_0856%5B10%5D.jpg"><img alt="IMG_0856" border="0" height="457" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TQAZvhR4GzI/AAAAAAAAATM/3gS0JyGtvyA/IMG_0856_thumb%5B8%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="IMG_0856" width="595" /></a><br />The path must have once been more manageable, since it leads to these most accommodating stone steps…<br /><a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TQAZwUCJpdI/AAAAAAAAATQ/-_nqmILKLws/s1600-h/IMG_0860%5B5%5D.jpg"><img alt="IMG_0860" border="0" height="454" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TQAZxa40y_I/AAAAAAAAATU/7TUILqRLmAQ/IMG_0860_thumb%5B3%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="IMG_0860" width="593" /><br /><br /></a>At the bottom is this monument…It announces this spot as where Peter Minuit “bought” Mannahatta for sharp edged metal tools (and of course, some beads). There’s another monument at the Battery commemorating the same thing.&nbsp; It very well might have happened in both places, since he dealt with the wrong people the first time.&nbsp; <br /><br />The tulip tree is pretty incredible, 1658-1938.&nbsp; The Wall Street wall was 4 years old when the tulip tree sprouted.&nbsp; That’s how old my father was when it died.<br /><a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TQAZyUkc8-I/AAAAAAAAATY/cZi2IQGqkmg/s1600-h/IMG_0863%5B6%5D.jpg"><img alt="IMG_0863" border="0" height="457" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TQAZzPWEDrI/AAAAAAAAATc/3Sqe8eB_pDU/IMG_0863_thumb%5B4%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="IMG_0863" width="594" /></a> <br />From the bottom, looking along the last segment of the Harlem River where it meets the Hudson just beyond the Henry Hudson Expressway.<br /><a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TQAZ0FKYbgI/AAAAAAAAATg/nueP9eYz4OE/s1600-h/IMG_0864%5B5%5D.jpg"><img alt="IMG_0864" border="0" height="448" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TQAZ02VVliI/AAAAAAAAATk/VykFQ7_q0o8/IMG_0864_thumb%5B3%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="IMG_0864" width="586" /></a> <br />Panning to the right a bit, a lagoon. Those are seagulls, and they’re walking…<br /><a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TQAZ1tvKnaI/AAAAAAAAATo/dUxnZLv-f8U/s1600-h/IMG_0865%5B5%5D.jpg"><img alt="IMG_0865" border="0" height="454" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TQAZ2eCkWuI/AAAAAAAAATs/h5nw7QvRNdg/IMG_0865_thumb%5B3%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="IMG_0865" width="589" /></a><br /><a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TQAZ3KQ3QWI/AAAAAAAAATw/cwND6kgv5wg/s1600-h/IMG_0873%5B5%5D.jpg"><img alt="IMG_0873" border="0" height="451" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TQAZ3hIFh0I/AAAAAAAAAT0/TvQWzpdhQSM/IMG_0873_thumb%5B3%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="IMG_0873" width="589" /></a><br />Farther to the right, this is mud under a sheen of water…ecosystems don’t get much richer than this…Manhattan’s last salt water marsh. <br /><a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TQAZ4TJGuwI/AAAAAAAAAT4/o0atJ4L13xA/s1600-h/IMG_0866%5B6%5D.jpg"><img alt="IMG_0866" border="0" height="452" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TQAZ5GSJGkI/AAAAAAAAAT8/yP3kBmrlwdo/IMG_0866_thumb%5B4%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="IMG_0866" width="587" /></a><br />This how 21st century urbanites enjoy the park…they stay mostly down below…<br /><a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TQAZ6McIuyI/AAAAAAAAAUA/ghEkpanOPJw/s1600-h/IMG_0867%5B6%5D.jpg"><img alt="IMG_0867" border="0" height="454" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TQAZ68HrhpI/AAAAAAAAAUE/VwsDqCVG7Fc/IMG_0867_thumb%5B4%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="IMG_0867" width="589" /></a> <br />…and have this view, looking across a<i> lagoon </i>at <i>fjords</i> from <i>Manhattan</i>.&nbsp; That’s the Spuyten Duyvil train station across the way under the Henry Hudson Bridge. <br /><a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TQAZ7uBw3UI/AAAAAAAAAUI/V4t_Cfx6Mss/s1600-h/IMG_0869%5B6%5D.jpg"><img alt="IMG_0869" border="0" height="458" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TQAZ86LXDAI/AAAAAAAAAUM/CtZE9sm0D-0/IMG_0869_thumb%5B4%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="IMG_0869" width="597" /></a><br />Just another minute’s walk farther along is Columbia’s Wien stadium.&nbsp; I thought this was the closest I would be able to get…. (The Broadway Bridge is in the back.)<br /><a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TQAZ9k1F7XI/AAAAAAAAAUQ/EvleIQyDKvI/s1600-h/IMG_0884%5B6%5D.jpg"><img alt="IMG_0884" border="0" height="464" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TQAZ-c-9SuI/AAAAAAAAAUU/WPPhuS3jXRw/IMG_0884_thumb%5B4%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="IMG_0884" width="602" /></a> <br />But the gate was open…(see blog title)<br /><a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TQAZ_Lar5gI/AAAAAAAAAUY/35Y180afXYA/s1600-h/IMG_0885%5B6%5D.jpg"><img alt="IMG_0885" border="0" height="466" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TQAZ_4y4SZI/AAAAAAAAAUc/k_kuTTfQpJw/IMG_0885_thumb%5B4%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="IMG_0885" width="606" /></a><br />It’s important to pay respect…mutton chops, gilded age…the first wooden stadium and this monument were both erected in 1928…read the bottom: “‘C’ Club”….<br /><a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TQAaA5vZdQI/AAAAAAAAAUg/PVIGHQ-NnDU/s1600-h/IMG_0886%5B6%5D.jpg"><img alt="IMG_0886" border="0" height="465" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TQAaBvIzdgI/AAAAAAAAAUo/bApic2SgJc0/IMG_0886_thumb%5B4%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="IMG_0886" width="605" /></a><br />From the uppermost seats in Wien Stadium. Now you know why the “C” is where it is….<br /><a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TQAaCX-Af1I/AAAAAAAAAUs/yFyfBy0Y520/s1600-h/IMG_0893%5B4%5D.jpg"><img alt="IMG_0893" border="0" height="472" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TQAaC4l0X6I/AAAAAAAAAUw/buflT-90q_E/IMG_0893_thumb%5B2%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="IMG_0893" width="621" /></a><br />Five hundred feet later I’m back in the city…The Broadway Bridge, the downtown 1 train passing, buses and cars at all the wrong angles (this is why it’s so easy to skate in the Manhattan, vehicles don’t move.)&nbsp; <br /><a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TQAaDqLYkrI/AAAAAAAAAU0/-AVaRc6a5Dc/s1600-h/IMG_0898%5B6%5D.jpg"><img alt="IMG_0898" border="0" height="469" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TQAaEr-7PpI/AAAAAAAAAU4/XKDYFfsPCg4/IMG_0898_thumb%5B4%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="IMG_0898" width="610" /></a><br />But if I’m going to leave you with that image, I might as well show you a few miles away, a few hours later….<a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TQH1ur3aDGI/AAAAAAAAAVE/wYwMnwHNJlk/s1600-h/Broadway%20Holiday%5B3%5D.jpg"><img alt="Broadway Holiday" border="0" height="519" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TQH1vgpMJTI/AAAAAAAAAVI/cc1MpwG5eQY/Broadway%20Holiday_thumb%5B1%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border: 0px none; display: inline;" title="Broadway Holiday" width="611" /></a><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/ManhattanUnlocked/~4/pgs7VEA51ZE" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>Robert Amellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06084801755976271616noreply@blogger.com3http://manhattanunlocked.blogspot.com/2010/12/inwood-park-walk-pt-2-columbia-c.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2681192941667483351.post-5844040904783385852010-12-07T18:57:00.007-05:002011-02-16T21:33:11.215-05:00Inwood Park & Robert Frost<i>The Tuft of Flowers</i>, by Robert Frost, came to life today at the start of a 90 minute walk on a desolate cold day through Inwood Park.&nbsp; I’ll take you just that far, we’ll save the rest for another day…<br /><br />Looking south to the George Washington Bridge, near the Dyckman Street entrance and the lower level of the park…<br /><a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TP7JcQOSMEI/AAAAAAAAANc/ndYYskvqVPg/s1600-h/IMG_0789%5B11%5D.jpg"><img alt="IMG_0789" border="0" height="385" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TP7Jc43EPBI/AAAAAAAAANg/PRXDgre6kYA/IMG_0789_thumb%5B9%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="IMG_0789" width="503" /></a><br />My walk already started out special.&nbsp; I passed this, what appears to be a devotion, along the banks of the Hudson.&nbsp; <a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TP7Jd-K3RjI/AAAAAAAAANk/KyYkJxUTs4U/s1600-h/IMG_0794%5B2%5D.jpg"><img alt="IMG_0794" border="0" height="184" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TP7Jef5_UaI/AAAAAAAAANo/HwwhmWwpea0/IMG_0794_thumb.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="IMG_0794" width="244" /></a> <a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TP7JfYr7sSI/AAAAAAAAANs/OPPyA_5JErw/s1600-h/IMG_0792%5B2%5D.jpg"><img alt="IMG_0792" border="0" height="184" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TP7Jfw-UPXI/AAAAAAAAANw/vOB52RDEXis/IMG_0792_thumb.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="IMG_0792" width="244" /></a> <br />Not so unusual, actually.&nbsp; Inwood is a special community.<br /><br />I’ve posted this view before, but not from this perspective, at sea level, the fjords (palisades) across the Hudson.<br /><a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TP7Jgt2txUI/AAAAAAAAAN0/1wGl7tdUlI0/s1600-h/IMG_0790%5B4%5D.jpg"><img alt="IMG_0790" border="0" height="369" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TP7JhWTuEqI/AAAAAAAAAN4/IH6PK8ttBOw/IMG_0790_thumb%5B2%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="IMG_0790" width="485" /></a> <br />Looking north towards the Tappan Zee, up the Hudson…<br /><a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TP7JiXnRFsI/AAAAAAAAAN8/elrMVWccGCQ/s1600-h/IMG_0798%5B5%5D.jpg"><img alt="IMG_0798" height="370" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TP7JjLihyWI/AAAAAAAAAOA/sgW2VPfWRII/IMG_0798_thumb%5B3%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" style="display: inline;" title="IMG_0798" width="487" /></a> <br /><i></i>Just a little bit further to the right of the above image, a bridge for Amtrak and the entrance of the short Harlem River…<br /><a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TP7Jj5ckSzI/AAAAAAAAAOE/BVogDeeGXPM/s1600-h/IMG_0802%5B12%5D.jpg"><img alt="IMG_0802" border="0" height="383" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TP7Jk02L9-I/AAAAAAAAAOI/neYQXaQhu_g/IMG_0802_thumb%5B10%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="IMG_0802" width="498" /></a><br /><br />Here’s the bridge that takes you over RR tracks, deeper into the park. This is the first time I crossed the bridge because I’d always been on skates before...<br /><i></i>&nbsp;<a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TP7Jl5zptEI/AAAAAAAAAOM/TcNwUDCA1fo/s1600-h/IMG_0807%5B7%5D.jpg"><img alt="IMG_0807" border="0" height="381" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TP7JmnPyhNI/AAAAAAAAAOQ/aCxmg8ZUBPQ/IMG_0807_thumb%5B5%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="IMG_0807" width="501" /></a> <br /><br />I didn’t wait here more than a minute…<br /><i><a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TP7JnjliDpI/AAAAAAAAAOU/1UainP2V0s4/s1600-h/IMG_0808%5B4%5D.jpg"><img alt="IMG_0808" border="0" height="388" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TP7JoWVoozI/AAAAAAAAAOY/QlirdBrcI4g/IMG_0808_thumb%5B2%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="IMG_0808" width="511" /></a> </i><br />when a train came by…<br /><i><a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TP7Jp4kuuaI/AAAAAAAAAOc/OZDly9-31-k/s1600-h/IMG_0809%5B4%5D.jpg"><img alt="IMG_0809" border="0" height="388" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TP7JqSEVyHI/AAAAAAAAAOg/WptS5hOkMKA/IMG_0809_thumb%5B2%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="IMG_0809" width="511" /></a> </i><br />Inwood Park is the closest you get to an expanse of “woods” in Manhattan,&nbsp; and considering what most perceptions are of Manhattan, it’s pretty incredible…<br /><a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TP7JrP3P9fI/AAAAAAAAAOk/vWH1VYLVscw/s1600-h/IMG_0810%5B5%5D.jpg"><img alt="IMG_0810" border="0" height="680" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TP7JsFoh-UI/AAAAAAAAAOo/vd5lkbUJjms/IMG_0810_thumb%5B3%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="IMG_0810" width="520" /></a>&nbsp; <br />As soon as you cross the tracks, “street” lamps from a by-gone age mark the path…<br /><a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TP7JtbiHqvI/AAAAAAAAAOs/8UJdnGGwEHo/s1600-h/IMG_0812%5B13%5D.jpg"><img alt="IMG_0812" border="0" height="405" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TP7JuSH48hI/AAAAAAAAAOw/XHcNXYFusEU/IMG_0812_thumb%5B11%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="IMG_0812" width="522" /></a><br />Can you see both lamp posts in the woods?<br /><a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TP7JvucPzKI/AAAAAAAAAO0/WNF0XxkoFyY/s1600-h/IMG_0813%5B10%5D.jpg"><img alt="IMG_0813" border="0" height="403" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TP7JwS4l3XI/AAAAAAAAAO4/iool86agTdk/IMG_0813_thumb%5B6%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="IMG_0813" width="527" /></a> <br />I will leave off with this.&nbsp; The tunnel ahead leads the traveler under the southbound Henry Hudson Parkway.&nbsp; This is where I encountered something that I realized, later when I looked closely at the pictures, <i>was </i>Robert Frost’s <i>The Tuft of Flowers</i>.&nbsp; I mean that explicitly; considering the country:city thing, this is not even a metaphor, but <i>exactly and really </i>what Robert Frost experienced that caused him to express<i>&nbsp;</i>the beautiful sentiment in that wonderful poem (which is included at the end).&nbsp; Follow closely…<br />Here is the tunnel as you approach…<br /><i></i>&nbsp;<a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TP7JxS3BJII/AAAAAAAAAO8/zVhdyTL2Vcg/s1600-h/IMG_0814%5B2%5D.jpg"><img alt="IMG_0814" border="0" height="184" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TP7Jx5ohhOI/AAAAAAAAAPA/kS1TuDSzdrc/IMG_0814_thumb.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border: 0px none; display: inline;" title="IMG_0814" width="244" /></a> <br />Notice the tunnel has been painted midway up, first a peach color, and another coat of white paint came later…<br /><a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TP7JyzgGxkI/AAAAAAAAAPE/L4HeHtSGbkA/s1600-h/IMG_0815%5B3%5D.jpg"><img alt="IMG_0815" border="0" height="365" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TP7Jzz0uO_I/AAAAAAAAAPI/Ynt0PvchN4s/IMG_0815_thumb%5B1%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border: 0px none; display: inline;" title="IMG_0815" width="479" /></a> <br /><i></i> The view through the tunnel…<br /><a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TP7J0x0HT-I/AAAAAAAAAPM/GCH5P6MuInM/s1600-h/IMG_0822%5B3%5D.jpg"><img alt="IMG_0822" border="0" height="369" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TP7J1YvybfI/AAAAAAAAAPQ/qJk9Rs_6sK0/IMG_0822_thumb%5B1%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border: 0px none; display: inline;" title="IMG_0822" width="484" /></a> <br />But down to the left upon entering the tunnel, in the dirt, started by someone, at some time, a mosaic of flowers.<br /><br /><a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TP7J24NbvVI/AAAAAAAAAPU/VMvzCQwkEuk/s1600-h/IMG_0820%5B4%5D.jpg"><img alt="IMG_0820" border="0" height="388" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TP7J3k4HDhI/AAAAAAAAAPY/ASn7YUNbOuQ/IMG_0820_thumb%5B2%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border: 0px none; display: inline;" title="IMG_0820" width="510" /></a> <br /><a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TP7J4Wxaa2I/AAAAAAAAAPc/dKRj4nBVBMs/s1600-h/IMG_0819%5B6%5D.jpg"><img alt="IMG_0819" border="0" height="398" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TP7J5JsA2gI/AAAAAAAAAPg/evU_hsvfSyw/IMG_0819_thumb%5B4%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border: 0px none; display: inline;" title="IMG_0819" width="524" /></a> <br />The flower mosaic was installed between the two coats of paint. Look how the painter who came later was careful to avoid getting paint on it…<br /><a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TP7J59qEbVI/AAAAAAAAAPk/V6q07-28TiA/s1600-h/IMG_0817%5B5%5D.jpg"><img alt="IMG_0817" border="0" height="413" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TP7J6ryBhFI/AAAAAAAAAPo/gcXHDoCIJf4/IMG_0817_thumb%5B3%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border: 0px none; display: inline;" title="IMG_0817" width="539" /></a> <br />It’s literally this poem. Two workers met without meeting.&nbsp; The latter appreciated what the former had done, and in so doing, came to see the world a bit differently…&nbsp; <br /><br /><div style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;,sans-serif; text-align: justify;"><i>A Tuft of Flowers,</i> by Robert Frost</div><div style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;,sans-serif; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;,sans-serif; text-align: justify;">I went to turn the grass once after one</div><div style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;,sans-serif; text-align: justify;">Who mowed it in the dew before the sun.</div><div style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;,sans-serif; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;,sans-serif; text-align: justify;">The dew was gone that made his blade so keen</div><div style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;,sans-serif; text-align: justify;">Before I came to view the leveled scene. </div><div style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;,sans-serif; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;,sans-serif; text-align: justify;">I looked for him behind an isle of trees;</div><div style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;,sans-serif; text-align: justify;">I listened for his whetstone on the breeze. </div><div style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;,sans-serif; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;,sans-serif; text-align: justify;">But he had gone his way, the grass all mown,</div><div style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;,sans-serif; text-align: justify;">And I must be, as he had been,—alone, </div><div style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;,sans-serif; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;,sans-serif; text-align: justify;">`As all must be,' I said within my heart,</div><div style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;,sans-serif; text-align: justify;">`Whether they work together or apart.' </div><div style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;,sans-serif; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;,sans-serif; text-align: justify;">But as I said it, swift there passed me by</div><div style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;,sans-serif; text-align: justify;">On noiseless wing a 'wildered butterfly, </div><div style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;,sans-serif; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;,sans-serif; text-align: justify;">Seeking with memories grown dim o'er night</div><div style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;,sans-serif; text-align: justify;">Some resting flower of yesterday's delight. </div><div style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;,sans-serif; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;,sans-serif; text-align: justify;">And once I marked his flight go round and round,</div><div style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;,sans-serif; text-align: justify;">As where some flower lay withering on the ground. </div><div style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;,sans-serif; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;,sans-serif; text-align: justify;">And then he flew as far as eye could see,</div><div style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;,sans-serif; text-align: justify;">And then on tremulous wing came back to me. </div><div style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;,sans-serif; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;,sans-serif; text-align: justify;">I thought of questions that have no reply,</div><div style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;,sans-serif; text-align: justify;">And would have turned to toss the grass to dry; </div><div style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;,sans-serif; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;,sans-serif; text-align: justify;">But he turned first, and led my eye to look</div><div style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;,sans-serif; text-align: justify;">At a tall tuft of flowers beside a brook, </div><div style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;,sans-serif; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;,sans-serif; text-align: justify;">A leaping tongue of bloom the scythe had spared</div><div style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;,sans-serif; text-align: justify;">Beside a reedy brook the scythe had bared. </div><div style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;,sans-serif; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;,sans-serif; text-align: justify;">I left my place to know them by their name,</div><div style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;,sans-serif; text-align: justify;">Finding them butterfly weed when I came. </div><div style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;,sans-serif; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;,sans-serif; text-align: justify;">The mower in the dew had loved them thus,</div><div style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;,sans-serif; text-align: justify;">By leaving them to flourish, not for us, </div><div style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;,sans-serif; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;,sans-serif; text-align: justify;">Nor yet to draw one thought of ours to him.</div><div style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;,sans-serif; text-align: justify;">But from sheer morning gladness at the brim. </div><div style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;,sans-serif; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;,sans-serif; text-align: justify;">The butterfly and I had lit upon,</div><div style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;,sans-serif; text-align: justify;">Nevertheless, a message from the dawn, </div><div style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;,sans-serif; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;,sans-serif; text-align: justify;">That made me hear the wakening birds around,</div><div style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;,sans-serif; text-align: justify;">And hear his long scythe whispering to the ground, </div><div style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;,sans-serif; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;,sans-serif; text-align: justify;">And feel a spirit kindred to my own;</div><div style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;,sans-serif; text-align: justify;">So that henceforth I worked no more alone; </div><div style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;,sans-serif; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;,sans-serif; text-align: justify;">But glad with him, I worked as with his aid,</div><div style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;,sans-serif; text-align: justify;">And weary, sought at noon with him the shade; </div><div style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;,sans-serif; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;,sans-serif; text-align: justify;">And dreaming, as it were, held brotherly speech</div><div style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;,sans-serif; text-align: justify;">With one whose thought I had not hoped to reach. </div><div style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;,sans-serif; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;,sans-serif; text-align: justify;">`Men work together,' I told him from the heart,</div><div style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;,sans-serif; text-align: justify;">`Whether they work together or apart.'</div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/ManhattanUnlocked/~4/QT8ZjRjRUpY" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>Robert Amellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06084801755976271616noreply@blogger.com5http://manhattanunlocked.blogspot.com/2010/12/inwood-park-robert-frost.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2681192941667483351.post-64270999833224481332010-12-05T13:00:00.026-05:002011-03-05T22:46:21.602-05:00Decoding the Seals of the City of New YorkA study of the current and past seals of New York City is an excellent way to learn the fundamentals of city history--ever wonder about the obscure symbols on the Municipal Building? Or why the seal appears differently from one building to another? The seal has a very rich, complex history, and counting every change, under the Dutch, the English, and then as free New Yorkers, we've had at least eight different versions in Manhattan's time.&nbsp; <br /><br />The familiar figures of the sailor and Native American made their first appearance in 1686, one year after James (our proprietor) moved up from Duke of York to King James II.&nbsp; After the Revolution, a single adjustment was “officially” made--an eagle replaced the royal crown--but in the process a symbol was lost. Then, in 1915, after decades of loose standards and builders and sculptors taking artistic license with the seal on buildings and monuments throughout the city, the Common Council ordered the history books dug out and a final "once-and-for-all," "this is the real deal" seal was officially promulgated, and the old symbol re-appeared in the process.&nbsp; In fact, the seal's history is rife with one “tempest in a teapot” scandal after another.<br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">In addition to the seal itself, it’s also intriguing to know how history was viewed <i>at different times in history.</i>&nbsp; Important periods encoded on the seal are all but forgotten today.&nbsp; This was a fascinating post to research and it should clear up some popular misconceptions about the seal of the City of New York.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div>I relied heavily on John Buckley Pine's, <i>Seal and Flag of the City of New York, 1665-1915</i> for this entry.&nbsp; <br /><br />First the basics. Let's break down the current, official seal. <br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TPNJhG2pzpI/AAAAAAAAAG4/UIiYu4gJanc/s1600/Seal+of+the+City+of+New+York.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TPNJhG2pzpI/AAAAAAAAAG4/UIiYu4gJanc/s640/Seal+of+the+City+of+New+York.JPG" width="480" /></a></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TPNPhZVmz9I/AAAAAAAAAHA/ztenO2TT3OE/s1600/images.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="152" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TPNPhZVmz9I/AAAAAAAAAHA/ztenO2TT3OE/s200/images.jpeg" width="200" /></a></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />The seal is wrapped in a <b>laurel wreath. </b>Most often used as a symbol of victory (to "rest on one's laurels" is to milk past achievements), it's the bay leaf.&nbsp; A more familiar symbolic image may be this...<br /><br /><br />An <b>eagle</b>, facing and rising <i>towards a</i> <i>sailor</i>, surmounts a <b>hemisphere</b> at the top.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">A ribbon inscribed with the Latin words, <b>SIGILLUM CIVITATIS NOVI EBORACI</b>, simply translates as "Seal of the City of New York."&nbsp; </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div style="text-align: left;">The two figures on the seal, a <b>sailor</b> and a <b>Native American</b>, are almost always identified as having the names Dexter and Sinister. But there is a designated name for every position on a seal (for example, the eagle occupies a position called the "crest"), and “the dexter” and “the sinister” are <i>seal positions</i>: they are Latin for "right" and "left."&nbsp; On the official seal, the figures <i>hold up</i> the shield (they should never be leaning on it), and the sailor is the "dexter support," while the Native American the "sinister support."<br /><br />The sailor holds a <b>plummet</b> in his right hand, the Native American holds a <b>bow</b> in his left.&nbsp; Some accounts say the sailor is holding a plumb, a carpenter's tool, but it's actually a lead-lined plummet used for measuring water depths. And just because visuals are fun,</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div>it looks more like this...<br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TPWGb8-NdNI/AAAAAAAAAH0/fT1kr0qIxtw/s1600/sinker.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TPWGb8-NdNI/AAAAAAAAAH0/fT1kr0qIxtw/s200/sinker.jpeg" width="200" /></a></div><br /><div style="text-align: left;"></div><div style="text-align: left;"></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; ...than this....<br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TPWGkGLyK5I/AAAAAAAAAH4/HHCwrsQSqcA/s1600/egypt+plumb.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TPWGkGLyK5I/AAAAAAAAAH4/HHCwrsQSqcA/s1600/egypt+plumb.jpeg" /></a>&nbsp;</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Pointing toward the sky over the right shoulder of the sailor is a <b>cross-staff</b>; a navigational tool used for finding latitude, it's used like this...</div></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TPXbFUfONiI/AAAAAAAAAK0/y3keP0wg9vQ/s1600/cross-staff.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="194" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TPXbFUfONiI/AAAAAAAAAK0/y3keP0wg9vQ/s320/cross-staff.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div>This is the symbol that mysteriously disappears and re-appears, as we’ll&nbsp; see shortly.<br /><br />Both figures stand on a <b>laurel branch</b>. <br /><br />On the rare occasion that the seal gets any press coverage at all, it's usually because of the date at the bottom, which since 1977 has been <b>1625</b>, a date most agree is meaningless. Over its history, though, the seal has displayed different years depending on whatever hallmark event was fashionable to recognize at the time. <br /><div style="text-align: left;"></div><div style="text-align: left;"></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />Now for the really interesting history. At the center, a <b>shield</b> is emblazoned with <b>two beaver</b> and <b>two flour barrels</b> in the spaces between the arms of a <b>windmill.</b> <br /><br />The beaver (their pelts for fur and skin for hats) is most famously associated with New York's economic beginnings under the Dutch. To give you an idea of just how central beaver were in the early economy, the Netherlands-bound ship, the <i>Arms of Amsterdam,</i> delivered the Schagan letter bearing the news of Peter Minuit's purchase of the island in 1626, which also enumerated this cargo: <br /><blockquote>7,246 Beaver skins<br />178 1/2 Otter skins<br />675 Otter skins<br />48 Mink skins<br />36 Lynx skins<br />33 Minx<br />34 Muskrat skin</blockquote></div><div style="text-align: left;">Beaver were, by far, the main commodity of New Netherland and could actually be used as currency. But according to the indispensable <i>Gotham</i>, by Edwin G. Burrows and Mike Wallace, the beaver trade fell off&nbsp; 80% just 25 years later, by the mid-1650s.<br /><br />The English took over in 1664 and a decade later a "new beaver," so to speak, was found--<i>and just for Manhattan</i>--in the actions of Governor Andros who ordained that all imports be processed through the port of New York.&nbsp; As well, all exports had to be packed, loaded and shipped <i>from</i> New York. With Andros' decree, every community from Albany to Amboy to Hempstead had to send their cattle,&nbsp; pigs, and harvest to New York for export. Flour, though, was the “new beaver.”</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />"Bolting" flour was the arduous multi-stage process of separating wheat into flour and bran.&nbsp;&nbsp; Apparently New Yorkers were quite adept at it since one of Andros' main arguments for the law was that it was needed to ensure a consistent and high quality product. With bolting, barrel-making became a booming island industry.<br /><br />Had the decree <i>not</i> come about it’s hard to say how much New York's run up to power would have been affected later on. The Erie Canal stood on the shoulders of previous booms, just as the flour boom stood on the shoulders of the beaver trade. Its benefits to Manhattan were nothing short of mind boggling.&nbsp; <i>Stokes Iconography </i>sums it up from a written complaint lodged by a New Yorker lamenting the 1694 repeal of the pro-Manhattan law. (The "Bolting Act," a term often attributed to the law itself, <strike>was actually</strike> appears to have been the <i>repeal </i>of the law that would release the outlying areas from Manhattan's firm economic grip.)&nbsp; It may be ironic that the author of these words was formulating a <i>complaint</i>, but that's classic New York... <br /><blockquote>When the city enjoyed the bolting monopoly several advantages accrued to this city and province. In 1678, when the bolting began, there were only 343 houses in New York. By 1696, 594 new buildings had been added. This increase is to be attributed to the bolting. The revenue in the years 1678, '79, and '80 did not exceed £2,000; but after that it increased annually until it amounted in 1687 to £5,000.... In 1678, there were three ships, eight sloops and seven boats belonging to this port; in 1694, there were 60 ships, 62 sloops, and 40 boats.... In 1678, not over 400 [beaver] were killed; in 1694, nearly 4,000. Lands were low-priced during those years; since then they have advanced to ten times their value. Of the 983 houses in New York, 600 depend upon bolting. </blockquote>In 16 years the port went from owning 18 seaworthy vessels to 142, mostly due to sifting flour.&nbsp; Andros' laws did for Manhattan what the Erie Canal would do 125 years later: triple the economy in a few years and put Manhattan in the enviable position of middleman. So the flour barrel got its place on the seal.<br /><br />The windmill's connection to the Dutch is not necessarily a given; when it first appears on the seal we were under English rule, and windmills were popular there, too. But the 1686 seal, when it first appears, was the first seal created by New Yorkers themselves. And since there were many Dutch in positions of authority, and many of them had windmills <i>on their</i> coats-of-arms, it probably does symbolize Dutch heritage.&nbsp; But the best argument can be found in the position of the windmill's arms, they mimic the saltire, or St. Andrew's Cross, and three saltires arranged vertically was the official Dutch emblem.&nbsp;&nbsp; <br /><br />The evolution of the seal.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TPc8Bvfo3TI/AAAAAAAAALs/pVNxKB47PeY/s1600/1623.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="243" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TPc8Bvfo3TI/AAAAAAAAALs/pVNxKB47PeY/s320/1623.jpg" width="256" /></a></div><span style="font-size: small;"><b>1623.</b> The seal of the Province of New Netherland--<i>not </i>specifically New Amsterdam.&nbsp; New Netherland stretched from parts of Connecticut to Delaware. The beaver is surrounded by a string of wampum, which, along with beaver, could be used as currency. SIGILLUM NOVI BELGII translates to "Seal of the New Belgium."&nbsp; Belgium was once part of the Netherlands, and 30 French Walloon families (future Belgians) were the first large group delivered to settle the land and work for the Dutch West India Company.&nbsp;&nbsp; </span><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TPvkBVN7iNI/AAAAAAAAANE/84m8Fjoq0r8/s1600-h/surrogate%20ct%20newest%5B3%5D.jpg"><img align="right" alt="surrogate ct newest" border="0" height="216" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TPvkB8B9j6I/AAAAAAAAANI/CT3R2virbCk/surrogate%20ct%20newest_thumb%5B1%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px;" title="surrogate ct newest" width="244" /></a> The arcade of Surrogate's Court, 1907 (aka the Hall of Records), is adorned with <i>a few</i> faithfully reproduced historical seals. On this earliest one, you can just make out the wampun along the left edge of the shield. </div><div style="text-align: left;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TPhl-435AgI/AAAAAAAAAME/11j8inMsC_8/s1600/Washington+%2526+Jane+III.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><br /></a></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TPWjqbAcrqI/AAAAAAAAAIQ/3ATMPn6xw1U/s1600/Municipal+bldg.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TPWjqbAcrqI/AAAAAAAAAIQ/3ATMPn6xw1U/s320/Municipal+bldg.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>The Municipal Building, 1914, focuses on the main elements. Actually, as Pine notes, not the seal but "the arms of New Netherland, New Amsterdam and New York are repeated many times on the new Municipal Building." <span style="font-size: x-small;">(Pine, p. 22)</span><br /><br /><br /><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TPhl-435AgI/AAAAAAAAAME/11j8inMsC_8/s1600/Washington+%2526+Jane+III.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TPhl-435AgI/AAAAAAAAAME/11j8inMsC_8/s320/Washington+%2526+Jane+III.JPG" width="320" /></a>99 Jane Street in the Village has a public space that exhibits two seals, the earliest and <i>what was thought to be the latest</i> versions. They are, nonetheless, handsomely done. <br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TPcJyFeScWI/AAAAAAAAALE/iQrMJ3q7Ero/s1600/use+this+NA.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="258" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TPcJyFeScWI/AAAAAAAAALE/iQrMJ3q7Ero/s320/use+this+NA.jpg" width="276" /></a></div><b>1654.</b> Still Dutch. When city leaders petitioned for and were granted municipal government, the directors of the West India Company sent the city its very own coat-of-arms. At the very top is the insignia of the West India Company (small G, large W, small C). A beaver rests atop a shield emblazoned with three Xs, known as a saltires, or St. Andrew's crosses (in the same position as the windmill’s arms). Below the shield, SIGILLUM AMSTELODAMENSIS IN NOVO BELGIO translates to "Seal of Amsterdam in New Belgium."<br /><br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TPdBIpicRtI/AAAAAAAAALw/0y18ZR0S0jc/s1600/surrogate+new.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TPdBIpicRtI/AAAAAAAAALw/0y18ZR0S0jc/s320/surrogate+new.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>Surrogate's Court does another accurate reproduction...</div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TPXQFrH0HLI/AAAAAAAAAKU/DMpyQFVKzyw/s1600/municipal+bldg.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TPXQFrH0HLI/AAAAAAAAAKU/DMpyQFVKzyw/s320/municipal+bldg.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><br /><br /><br />...while the Municipal Building streamlines it, presenting only the saltire arms.<br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><div style="text-align: left;"><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TPcKXxM4pNI/AAAAAAAAALI/78De9N-d4mQ/s1600/1664.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="309" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TPcKXxM4pNI/AAAAAAAAALI/78De9N-d4mQ/s320/1664.jpg" width="302" /></a></div><b>1669</b>. When the English took over in 1664 the seal underwent a radical revamp. King Charles II gave New York (and other lands) to his brother James, then Duke of York, who issued <i>two </i>seals: one for the <i>Province</i> and one for the <i>City</i> of New York. This is the provincial seal; the city seal is apparently lost to history.&nbsp; <br /><br />The <i>Province</i> of New York extended over "all the land from the west side of the Connectecutte River to the East side of De la Ware Bay.'" <span style="font-size: x-small;">(Pine, p. 8)</span>&nbsp; The coat-of-arms in the center belongs to the House of Stuart, and the small crown (a coronet) is emblematic of James, then a Duke. The inner circle, HONI SOIT QUI MAL Y PENSE, translates as "Evil to him who thinks evil." The outer ring, SIGILL PROVINCE NOVI EBORAC says&nbsp; "seal of the Province of New York."<br /><br />Perhaps because this was the provincial, and not the lost city seal, Surrogate's Court skips this seal, ... <br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TPW23Dnt70I/AAAAAAAAAJE/_5J-G4hgNxg/s1600/IMG_0250.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TPW23Dnt70I/AAAAAAAAAJE/_5J-G4hgNxg/s320/IMG_0250.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><br /><br /><br /><br />...though the Municipal Building pays tribute to the House of Stuart.<br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TPdIKmApY3I/AAAAAAAAAL4/V1MQ3zKpW_k/s1600/james+new+new.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TPdIKmApY3I/AAAAAAAAAL4/V1MQ3zKpW_k/s320/james+new+new.jpg" width="271" /></a></div><b>1686.</b> The Dongan Charter of 1686 re-affirmed, in more substantive form, the municipal rights granted to the city earlier in 1664, when the English took over. <i>(But, and this will be important later, the 1664 city government was simply a continuation of the municipal government granted to the city under Dutch rule back in 1654!). </i>With the Dongan Charter, though, city officials were allowed to create <i>their own</i> seal.&nbsp; And there's an interesting anachronism here.&nbsp; The coronet <i>should have been changed to a crown</i> when James ascended the throne<i> in 1685</i>. This seal has the Dongan Charter <i>year of 1686</i>, but is emblazoned with a <i>coronet</i>, a year <i>after</i> James ascended the throne in 1685.&nbsp; </div><div style="text-align: left;"></div><div style="text-align: left;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TPhvoShAT4I/AAAAAAAAAMM/0jm29jcQcpU/s1600/use+this+James+II.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TPhvoShAT4I/AAAAAAAAAMM/0jm29jcQcpU/s320/use+this+James+II.jpg" /></a><br />This virtually identical seal is correct in both date and royal head gear, for in 1686 James <i>was</i> King. In fact the only difference appears to be the crown…</div><br />Another point of interest is that while it's often reported that the cross-staff was introduced in 1915, it can be clearly seen in the sailor's right hand in both of these early seals.&nbsp; It was actually <i>re-introduced</i> later.<br /><div style="text-align: left;"><br /><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TPp2HVjaOaI/AAAAAAAAAM0/nU9lmzUT6Ck/s1600/surrogate+1686.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TPp2HVjaOaI/AAAAAAAAAM0/nU9lmzUT6Ck/s320/surrogate+1686.jpg" width="320" /></a>Surrogate's Court handles the confusion just fine and coordinates the year and crown correctly: <i>1686</i>, with a <i>royal crown</i>. But notice the sailor has lost his cross-staff!&nbsp;&nbsp; </div><div style="text-align: left;"></div><div style="text-align: left;"></div><div style="text-align: left;"><a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TPvkCeP0K3I/AAAAAAAAANM/-zOBmgMl438/s1600-h/use%20iiii%5B5%5D.jpg"><img align="right" alt="use iiii" border="0" height="275" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TPvkCxi_VGI/AAAAAAAAANQ/0Z3EuMVOv2w/use%20iiii_thumb%5B3%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px;" title="use iiii" width="285" /></a> </div><div style="text-align: left;"></div><div style="text-align: left;"></div><div style="text-align: left;"></div><div style="text-align: left;"></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><b>1784.</b> After the Revolution the Common Council ordered a single change to the seal: an eagle on top of a "semi-globe" rising toward the sailor was to replace the royal crown. The year "1686" remained (maybe the Dongan Charter was more attractive than the<i> Articles of Confederation</i>?). Here is where the cross-staff was lost. In addition to the eagle, though, the shield's shape has changed (notice the Surrogate’s Court image above does have the older shield shape), and now there's a lot of foliage sprouting around the top. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TPXAU35tTtI/AAAAAAAAAJc/J4PzT4iDc4o/s1600/Surroagate+new.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TPXAU35tTtI/AAAAAAAAAJc/J4PzT4iDc4o/s320/Surroagate+new.jpg" /></a></div><div style="text-align: left;">In 1907 Surrogate's Court patriotically expunges “1686” from the seal image, the cross-staff is still missing, and the shape of the shield matches the 1784 version. But notice the Eagle is facing the other direction! </div><div style="text-align: left;"></div><div style="text-align: left;"></div><div style="text-align: left;"></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /><br /><br />The last major change came in 1915 (after many buildings, including Surrogate’s, had been built and adorned with the city seal). Why that year? To celebrate the 250th anniversary of the City's municipal government when a mayor, aldermen and sheriff retained a semblance of power under the English crown.&nbsp; Thing was, the English had adopted <i>New Amsterdam's </i>municipal government of 1654 whole sale, basically giving the Schout, Burgomaster and Schepen English names. (With this in mind, <i>in 1977,</i> the City Council would make one slight change, and 1664 would become 1625, not for the year of New Amsterdam’s municipal government, but the year the Dutch first settled Manhattan, <i>or so they thought</i>--does it ever end?).&nbsp; Anyway, 1915…<br /><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TPcXRxYVq-I/AAAAAAAAALo/nyXW2y2CyTc/s1600/1915+new.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="297" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TPcXRxYVq-I/AAAAAAAAALo/nyXW2y2CyTc/s320/1915+new.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>1915.</b> All standards for the seal had been lost by this time.&nbsp; Buildings and monuments (including Surrogate’s Court) had the sailor, Native American, and eagle doing all sorts of unconventional things. It was decided on this important anniversary that a uniform seal needed to be used consistently throughout the city, and the year 1664 was chosen for being the first time the name "New York" was used. To create the seal, they cracked open the archives and history books, and now the cross-staff has returned, the eagle faces the sailor, and though they did away with the foliage, they went back to the <i>English version</i> of the shield’s shape.&nbsp; Paul Manship designed this, our official seal. <br /><br />Here are some versions of the (pre-1977) seal on buildings throughout the city...<br /><br /><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TPWUAKLyw6I/AAAAAAAAAIE/AxdiycCE028/s1600/CCNY+HS.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TPWUAKLyw6I/AAAAAAAAAIE/AxdiycCE028/s320/CCNY+HS.JPG" width="320" /></a><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TPXE9PG34wI/AAAAAAAAAJo/zc9vUCrvohY/s1600/PS+3+Grove+Street+III.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;">&nbsp;</a> A High School on the CCNY campus uptown displays an accurate and faithful representation of the official seal in every detail.&nbsp; </div><div style="text-align: left;"></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /><br /><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TPXLUHh2NFI/AAAAAAAAAKI/NL4H41BBRUg/s1600/IMG_0324.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TPXLUHh2NFI/AAAAAAAAAKI/NL4H41BBRUg/s320/IMG_0324.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /><br /><br /><br />This is the Landmark Preservation Commission's plaque on the Bowling Green fence.<br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TPXO7LPfebI/AAAAAAAAAKQ/SEW5AuNLWJI/s1600/Louis+Lefkowitz+State+Office+Bldg+new.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TPXO7LPfebI/AAAAAAAAAKQ/SEW5AuNLWJI/s320/Louis+Lefkowitz+State+Office+Bldg+new.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />The Louis Lefkowitz State Office Building, 80 Centre Street, 1930. The year 1664 is there, just very tiny. <br /><br /><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TPXL3h3OubI/AAAAAAAAAKM/0XmWDWoo4jE/s1600/Washington+&amp;+JAne+II.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TPXL3h3OubI/AAAAAAAAAKM/0XmWDWoo4jE/s320/Washington+%2526+JAne+II.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />99 Jane Street again. Because it was installed after 1977, the date <i>should </i>read 1625. Still, beautiful piece of work.<br /><br /><br /><br /><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"></div><div style="text-align: left;"></div><div style="text-align: left;"></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /><br /><br /><br />There are great examples of builders and sculptors taking liberties with the seal prior to 1915.&nbsp; In John Buckley Pine's account of the seal's history, he goes off on an entertaining riff about the vagaries the seal was subjected to. I considered inserting [Native American] for "Indian," but since it's already been noted... </div><blockquote><div style="text-align: left;">In woodcuts of the beaver these animals sometimes appear like dogs and sometimes like pigs with pointed snouts. The Indian is represented with a western war-bonnet on his head, or baldheaded....He shifts uneasily from the sinister side to the dexter side, and when he gets tired he sits down. The dexter supporter is equally unreliable in his conduct and more uncertain as to nationality and occupation.... He exchanges places with the Indian from time to time, strikes different aesthetic attitudes and keeps the Indian company in sitting down occasionally. He also keeps progress with the times in nautical science. He discards the old cross-staff [remember the cross-staff had vanished and so was not available to sculptors or builders!] and contents himself for a while with the lead-line....The eagle, too, is restless on his perch, as perhaps is to be expected of a liberty loving eagle. In 1784 he is rising to the dexter, as required by law, but in the 19th century he mounts in the other direction. Generally he looks where he is going, but occasionally he looks backward to see if he is being followed, as has been his habit of late years. Just after the Revolution, some flowers sprang up around the eagle, but with the increasing population of the City the opportunities for gardening have grown less and the flowers have disappeared, together with the old date 1686 which was retained for a while in the same seal. </div></blockquote><div align="left" style="text-align: left;">And here are a few.&nbsp; If you know of others around town, let me know and I will add them!…</div><div align="center" style="text-align: left;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TPXRjAEa03I/AAAAAAAAAKY/EhBL2E_oa6k/s1600/135+Charles+St+Le+Gendarme.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TPXRjAEa03I/AAAAAAAAAKY/EhBL2E_oa6k/s320/135+Charles+St+Le+Gendarme.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><div style="text-align: left;">135 Charles Street, 1897. Le Gendarme apartments, the 9th police precinct until 1971. As they appear to lean on the shield, the sailor holds an oar and the eagle rises toward the center. <br /><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TPbOF_KeevI/AAAAAAAAAK4/aLApPgH6FO8/s1600/IMG_0717.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="246" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TPbOF_KeevI/AAAAAAAAAK4/aLApPgH6FO8/s400/IMG_0717.JPG" width="322" /></a></div><div style="text-align: left;">Soldiers' and Sailors' Monument, 1902. Perhaps because the monument was to recognize Civil War veterans, it would have been uncouth to spotlight a sailor from another era. Here, both "supports" definitely relax on the shield, and the dexter holds a shovel!&nbsp; </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TPcQk7n03PI/AAAAAAAAALg/RHLdm3MXG90/s1600/use.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="301" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TPcQk7n03PI/AAAAAAAAALg/RHLdm3MXG90/s320/use.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div style="text-align: left;">The seal put to rest in 1915.&nbsp; The eagle looks again to the left, no cross-staff, and it's questionable whether the figure is a sailor at all. </div><div style="text-align: left;"></div><div style="text-align: left;"></div><div style="text-align: left;"></div><div style="text-align: left;"></div><div style="text-align: left;"></div><div style="text-align: left;"></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TPXJx_iMYTI/AAAAAAAAAKE/avzz1Zbzk68/s1600/Louis+Lefkowitz+State+Office+Bldg+new.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><br /></a></div><div style="text-align: left;"><a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TPvkDZvTRrI/AAAAAAAAANU/5On10xEqabM/s1600-h/Gas%20co%20new%5B4%5D.jpg"><img align="left" alt="Gas co new" border="0" height="291" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TPvkD0DIYgI/AAAAAAAAANY/44VxfUk2CYw/Gas%20co%20new_thumb%5B2%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px;" title="Gas co new" width="280" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />226 West Broadway, formerly the Fire Department's High Pressure Services headquarter, 1918. Built during an apparent period of seal chaos, the sailor and Native American lean on the shield with a left facing eagle.&nbsp; Though the sailor's forearm is missing, you can see a plummet neatly wrapped in his floating fist.&nbsp;&nbsp; </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TPiZEnd_39I/AAAAAAAAAMY/evrl_S8GzFc/s1600/PS+3+Grove+Street+III.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="234" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TPiZEnd_39I/AAAAAAAAAMY/evrl_S8GzFc/s320/PS+3+Grove+Street+III.JPG" width="309" /></a></div><div style="text-align: left;">PS 3 on Grove Street in the Village.&nbsp; Though the school was definitely constructed after 1915, an explanation for the nonconformist seal might be found on the school’s own self-described history from their website:&nbsp; “The current PS 3, also known as the John Melser Charrette School, is very much a child of the 1960's, which is one reason you may occasionally hear it referred to as the 'hippie school.'”&nbsp; No cross-staff, leaning figures, eagle facing the wrong way. </div><div style="text-align: left;"></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />But what are you going to say when the police department does this…</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TPm9qEe1jvI/AAAAAAAAAMk/zZb_Qu01vfQ/s1600/IMG_0772.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img align="left" border="0" height="240" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TPm9qEe1jvI/AAAAAAAAAMk/zZb_Qu01vfQ/s320/IMG_0772.JPG" style="display: inline; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px;" width="320" /></a></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TPXTir9CkXI/AAAAAAAAAKo/sYc7omh--HE/s1600/IMG_0611.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TPXTir9CkXI/AAAAAAAAAKo/sYc7omh--HE/s320/IMG_0611.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><div style="text-align: left;"></div><div style="text-align: left;">I think the “sailor” is wearing a top hat here. <br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"></div><div style="text-align: left;"></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /><br /><br /><br />Here is the single post-1977 public display I could find of the <i>official seal</i>, with the <i>official year</i> of 1625. It is on the Emigrant Savings Bank...<br /><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TPWeaNr0uGI/AAAAAAAAAII/MLKurbBoYos/s1600/49+Chambers+new.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TPWeaNr0uGI/AAAAAAAAAII/MLKurbBoYos/s320/49+Chambers+new.jpg" width="320" /></a><br /><br /><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"></div><div style="text-align: left;"></div><div style="text-align: left;"></div><div style="text-align: left;"></div><div style="text-align: left;">&nbsp;&nbsp; ...only thing is...<br /><br /><br />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; ...the date's wrong.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TPimVtBfImI/AAAAAAAAAMg/21lnvzHq0fU/s1600/Battery+Park+iii.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TPimVtBfImI/AAAAAAAAAMg/21lnvzHq0fU/s640/Battery+Park+iii.JPG" width="480" /></a></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i><br /></i><br /><i>Added 2/16/11</i><br /><br />Two more examples of the seal around town...<br /><br />This one is from the City Water Department at 179th And Amsterdam...a pretty sad seal.&nbsp; Not so ironically, it looks to have a lot of water stains.<br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-h6gbuSAQU_M/TVw1-_haHYI/AAAAAAAABX8/MCO_JLwxXV8/s1600/IMG_1884i.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="491" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-h6gbuSAQU_M/TVw1-_haHYI/AAAAAAAABX8/MCO_JLwxXV8/s640/IMG_1884i.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br />But here's a gorgeous example..and the one other seal in public that has the year "1625."&nbsp; It's on 33rd Precinct at 170th and Amsterdam.<br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-yggHiveO8A0/TVw2wp-sksI/AAAAAAAABYA/vYhCQ1fvbm4/s1600/IMG_1889i.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-yggHiveO8A0/TVw2wp-sksI/AAAAAAAABYA/vYhCQ1fvbm4/s640/IMG_1889i.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-tqxrTZsfbDQ/TVw3GoHcOpI/AAAAAAAABYE/jGeQaxuFRQ8/s1600/IMG_1887.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-tqxrTZsfbDQ/TVw3GoHcOpI/AAAAAAAABYE/jGeQaxuFRQ8/s640/IMG_1887.JPG" width="640" /></a></div><br /><i>(added 3/6/2011)</i><br /><br />Not a seal per se, but a sculpture that certainly picks up the theme--and was quite liberal with it, at 58 Bowery (1924, Clarence Brazer).&nbsp; Originally Citizen's Savings Bank, it's the HSBC at Canal and the Bowery, across from the entrance of the Manhattan Bridge. These guys are really taking a break--most significantly, they've swapped positions!<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-hkHPAmJdSTA/TXMC523puWI/AAAAAAAABfI/hG24cnT60fQ/s1600/IMG_2345i.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="458" src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-hkHPAmJdSTA/TXMC523puWI/AAAAAAAABfI/hG24cnT60fQ/s640/IMG_2345i.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br /><br /><br /></div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/ManhattanUnlocked/~4/-TV1ZJ-GvTg" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>Robert Amellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06084801755976271616noreply@blogger.com56http://manhattanunlocked.blogspot.com/2010/11/architecture-lesson-1.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2681192941667483351.post-65861170340138669222010-11-26T22:10:00.003-05:002011-02-16T21:31:13.286-05:00WTC progress<span style="font-size: small;">Just a quick post and a few pictures to show the progress at the WTC site, the soon to be <i>Reflecting Absence </i>memorial in the footprints of the towers.&nbsp; They tested the waterfalls a few weeks ago. </span><br /><br /><span style="font-size: small;">I haven't gotten choked up about September 11 in a long time, but the <i>size </i>of the memorial is staggering when you see it for the first time. It was difficult to view, but I guess it's supposed to be. </span><br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TPBrYAlY0GI/AAAAAAAAAGE/ggtP5B1k_lQ/s1600/IMG_0302.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="387" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TPBrYAlY0GI/AAAAAAAAAGE/ggtP5B1k_lQ/s400/IMG_0302.JPG" width="512" /></a></div><br />That's part of the footprint of the South Tower, I think that's a generator and lights being hoisted up.<br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TPBrrveilnI/AAAAAAAAAGI/RDqGFXy8f_U/s1600/IMG_0303.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="397" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TPBrrveilnI/AAAAAAAAAGI/RDqGFXy8f_U/s400/IMG_0303.JPG" width="518" /></a></div><br />The South Tower footprint/<i>Reflecting Absence </i>being born...<br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TPBsCBY8a0I/AAAAAAAAAGM/pR4Mo2OsqTs/s1600/IMG_0304.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="386" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TPBsCBY8a0I/AAAAAAAAAGM/pR4Mo2OsqTs/s400/IMG_0304.JPG" width="511" /></a></div><br />The view from the Winter Garden.&nbsp; I've been at this spot maybe a dozen times since September 11 and for years the feeling was like you were looking at a construction site.&nbsp; With the memorials in view now, the feeling here is starting to change. <br /><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TPBqq7qzhGI/AAAAAAAAAF8/0lFQjkKRDvs/s1600/IMG_0300.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="395" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TPBqq7qzhGI/AAAAAAAAAF8/0lFQjkKRDvs/s640/IMG_0300.JPG" width="524" /></a><br /><br />The opposite direction of the above view....<br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TPBrCqwL9LI/AAAAAAAAAGA/CHNdpv_Fhu4/s1600/IMG_0301.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="405" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TPBrCqwL9LI/AAAAAAAAAGA/CHNdpv_Fhu4/s640/IMG_0301.JPG" width="537" /></a></div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/ManhattanUnlocked/~4/ztCvMQSbbdM" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>Robert Amellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06084801755976271616noreply@blogger.com3http://manhattanunlocked.blogspot.com/2010/11/wtc-progress.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2681192941667483351.post-43937523724457449942010-11-22T09:04:00.018-05:002011-02-16T21:30:52.031-05:00How "Hell's Kitchen" Got its Name (I think)No neighborhood's name wallows in more obscurity than "Hell's Kitchen." A veritable Thunderdome of the late 1800s, the mostly Irish and German community was notorious for assaulting unwelcome intruders by raining down a storm of bricks, rocks, and paving stones from tenement rooftops with legendary accuracy. It was Gopher territory, a gang known for lurking in cellar stairwells.&nbsp; It's said that no other gang stepped foot in Gopher territory without permission.&nbsp; <br /><br />Most discussions around the origin of the name center on whether "Hell's Kitchen" was first applied to a tenement, a&nbsp; rookery, a street, or a gang. But why "Hell's Kitchen" at all? When you read the history carefully, and put everything in place--literally--a rather gruesome but hard to ignore fact stares you in the face. I relied heavily on Richard O'Connor's <i>Hell's Kitchen: The Riotous Days of New York's West Side</i> for this entry.<br /><br />The narrowest, and possibly earliest, description of the neighborhood's boundaries were suggested by Theodore Dreiser in <i>The Color of a Great City</i>. Dreiser writes that when he first arrived in New York City in 1894 "it was a whim of the New York newspapers to dub that region on the West Side which lies between thirty-sixth and forty-first streets and Ninth Avenue and the Hudson River as <i>Hell's Kitchen</i>."&nbsp;&nbsp; Indeed, this was the dark heart of the greater area that would eventually adopt the name.<br /><br />Within this area were the most infamous tenements and rookeries (single family homes, often dilapidated wooden shanties, converted to multi-family dwellings). It was an area of destitution infused with whiskey and prostitution; living quarters had names like Battle Row, The Barracks, Sebastopol, and the House of Blazes where, for fun, residents would invite strangers in to drink and then douse them with flammable liquids and set them aflame. During the Draft Riots of 1863, 8th Avenue between 39th and 41st Streets, one block east of Dreiser's description but his exact same north-south boundaries, was blockaded by rioting residents. Within these few blocks were sparked the race riots of 1899 and 1900, a major impetus for the African American move uptown to Harlem.<br /><br />And, near the northeast corner of 39th Street and 10th Avenue was the eponymous rookery dubbed "Hell's Kitchen." <br /><br />Here is a picture of the Sebastopol tenement at 40th Street, between 9th and 10th Avenues.&nbsp; It was around the corner from the Hell's Kitchen rookery, but across the street from the House of Blazes (that may be its shadow in the street). The picture is said to be circa 1890. Notice the shanties (aka rookeries) nestled in the rock outcropping.<br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">&nbsp; </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TOnzb9Hl_UI/AAAAAAAAAEY/V837uV3tK78/s1600/Sebastopol+III.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="402" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TOnzb9Hl_UI/AAAAAAAAAEY/V837uV3tK78/s640/Sebastopol+III.jpg" width="499" /></a></div><br />The Viele map below (1865, but depicting an earlier terrain), shows the confluence of a number of rivers draining into the Hudson around 42nd Street. <strike>Before the grid,</strike> 42nd Street was a crosstown road used as a cattle drive to move livestock to slaughterhouses where the UN is today, directly across the island.&nbsp; The orange section is landfill and the road farthest to the left is 11th Avenue (not 12th). <br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><br /><u>KEY:</u><br /><b>Double red line: </b>The blockaded section of 8th Avenue during the Draft Riots of 1863.<br /><b>X:</b>&nbsp; July 20, 1899 incident that sparked a race riot along 10th Avenue.<br /><b>Y:</b>&nbsp; August 12, 1900 slaying that sparked a much worse race riot. <br />(Expect a future post on the African American community's experience and how and why they came to Harlem).<br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TOyCfxN8DUI/AAAAAAAAAFo/R8K6ypkvykM/s1600/Sebastopol+tenement+block+IIII.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TOyCfxN8DUI/AAAAAAAAAFo/R8K6ypkvykM/s640/Sebastopol+tenement+block+IIII.JPG" width="428" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><br />To give you an idea of this area today, here is the same map showing the Port Authority and the Lincoln Tunnel. The Lincoln Tunnel is not a monolithic structure like the P.A., but a complicated network of ramps that go over and under the streets. Relatively few tenements survived its construction. The Jacob Javits Center is located where the the "Lincoln Tunnel" label is positioned.&nbsp; <br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TOl2jWAAQRI/AAAAAAAAAEU/gawNPO4iCWQ/s1600/PA+and+LT+HK+overdrawn+II.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TOl2jWAAQRI/AAAAAAAAAEU/gawNPO4iCWQ/s640/PA+and+LT+HK+overdrawn+II.JPG" width="428" /></a></div><br />So why "Hell's Kitchen?"<br /><br />First, the theories with the least traction.<br /><br />1. Hell's Kitchen was named for a tenement on West 54th Street.<br /><br />Well, there seems to be no further information than just that; and West 54th Street is an outlier, nearly a mile from the center of the original Hell's Kitchen area.<br /><br />2. Hell's Kitchen was adopted from a similarly violent and depraved quarter of London.<br /><br />Okay, maybe. <br /><br />3. Hell's Kitchen is a corruption of Heil's Kitchen, a German lady who ran a restaurant near the docks.<br /><br />OK, but let's see if there's a more cogent explanation that doesn't require mispronouncing someone's name.<br /><br />4. The name was bestowed on the area by residents of New Jersey who, seeing the the smoke rising from the vendors' cooking on the waterfront, in combination with the sweltering heat, thought it an appropriate appellation.<br /><br />Possible, but weak. More likely they <i>thought</i> they came up with the name. <br /><br />The most oft repeated theory says that it originated the night that Dutch Fred, a veteran police office, was on patrol with a rookie cop on West 39th street near 10th Avenue (suspiciously close to the rookery of the same name). The two cops were witnessing a small riot and purportedly the rookie said to Dutch Fred, "This place is Hell itself,"&nbsp; to which the veteran cop replied, "Hell's a mild climate. This is Hell's Kitchen, no less."<br /><br />Heat as a metaphor for violence.&nbsp; Not unreasonable. There's no record of when the two officers had their conversation, which probably happened as it would explain the long legs of the story. But did Fred Dutch really coin the term on the spot? Could it be that the veteran cop, provided with the right segue, introduced the rookie cop to a name already in circulation?&nbsp; Could it then have taken on a life of its own, spreading outside the area with a different meaning than the residents understood it to mean? Let's suppose, regardless of whether Fred Dutch coined the term or not, it means what he implied, a place "hotter than hot." <br /><br />Kenneth Jackson's indomitable <i>Encyclopedia of New York City </i>(1st ed.)<i> </i>states, "The name Hell's Kitchen was perhaps taken from that of a gang that formed in the area in 1868, or adopted by local police in the 1870s." Fine, but it doesn't add anything to what we already know, a place "hotter than hot." <br /><br />The <i>Blue Guide</i> (2nd ed.) states the same thing,<a class="cssButton" href="javascript:void(0)" id="previewButton" onclick="void(0);" target=""> </a>just a bit differently. "An urban legend, probably apocryphal, suggests that two policemen watching a street fight on a muggy summer night gave the district its name. Said one, 'This neighborhood is hot as hell.' 'Hell is cool,' corrected the other. 'This here's Hell's Kitchen.'"<br /><br />It was, though, when a <i>New York Times</i> reporter went to the scene of a murder that "Hell's Kitchen" first appeared in print <i>as it referred to this part of town</i>.&nbsp; In reading the September 22, 1881 piece, it is evident the reporter did not coin the term. <br /><br /><blockquote>Hell's Kitchen--a most appropriate name--is situated on west thirty-ninth-street between ninth and tenth avenues, on the north side of the street. It is built on a rock which serves as a portion of the floor and side wall in some of the apartments. Vice in its most repulsive form thrives here, despite the efforts of the police to root out the hordes of vagrants, petty thieves, and utterly depraved prostitutes who make the locality their headquarters. Mrs. Livingstone, whose husband is now serving a term in Sing Sing, met the visitors [the reporter and his officer chaperon] to this particular den of infamy. Filthy beyond description, with bleared eyes, bloated face, had a breath that rivaled the odors of the soap factory, Mrs. Livingstone poured forth a volley of blasphemous and obscene epithets.... </blockquote><br />Soap factory; in essence, a fat rendering plant. Earlier in the piece the author says that The Barracks (around the corner) were "in the midst of a collection of soap factories and fat-boiling establishments, the sickening odor from which is enough to create nausea in the strongest and the healthiest...the entire building was permeated with the nauseating odor from the neighboring soap factories." <br /><br />When the Hudson River Railroad was laid down some 30 years earlier along 11th avenue in 1851, industries followed: lumberyards, gas companies and slaughterhouses. Slaughterhouses.&nbsp; O'Connor references Fitz-James O'Brien's apt, rather gruesome, description of the area.<br /><blockquote>This tract of land is perhaps the most melancholy and mysterious spot in the whole city. The different streets that cross the island pull up, as it were, suddenly on reaching this dreary place, seemingly afraid to trust themselves any further. The buildings that approach nearest to its confines are long, low ranges of fetid slaughter-houses, where on Sundays bloated butcher-boys lounge against the walls; and on week-days one hears through the closed doors the muffled blow, the heavy fall of the oxen within; the groan, and the hard-drawn breath; and then a red, sluggish stream trickles out from under the doorway and flows into the gutter, where hungry dogs wait impatiently to lap it up. The murderous atmosphere, these smells of blood, seem appropriate enough as one approaches this desolate locality. </blockquote>Of a health inspector's report of the area, O'Connor writes, "He spotted forty-six slaughter-houses, which drained blood and offal into the gutters instead of sewers. Children by the droves splashed in these same gutters." <br /><br />And, while the soap factories and fat-boiling plants were closest to The Barracks on 38th street, O'Connor says, "By 1859, West Thirty-ninth Street was known as Abattoir Place, and the bawling of cattle being herded to the bludgeons and knives of the butchers, not to mention the special aroma of the stockyards, filled the once sweet and quiet air of Bloomingdale."<br /><br />Now, look at Abattoir Place with its dozens of slaughterhouses, and its proximity to the rookery dubbed "Hell's Kitchen" (I labeled it "tenement" by mistake).&nbsp; <br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TOgUgE0DuRI/AAAAAAAAADY/U9FPd_M1h4Q/s1600/Hell%2527s+Kitchen+Map.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TOgUgE0DuRI/AAAAAAAAADY/U9FPd_M1h4Q/s640/Hell%2527s+Kitchen+Map.JPG" width="428" /></a></div><br />At the&nbsp; doorstep of the denizens of a rookery called "Hell's Kitchen" was literally a block-long <i>kitchen from Hell</i>, where the sights of butchers in bloody aprons, blood running in the gutters, and the sounds of death permeated the residents' every sense.&nbsp; What sits right is that the reason no one can pin down the original source of the name is that it was such an obvious depiction of the place that it went, to use a word, viral, among the residents of the immediate area.&nbsp; Perhaps it was left to Dutch Fred and his partner to spread the name beyond the original borders.<br /><br />Here is the area today:<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TOw1NcCxKGI/AAAAAAAAAEk/Q8qFEsjr8EQ/s1600/Google+Earth+labeled+with+arrows.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="558" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TOw1NcCxKGI/AAAAAAAAAEk/Q8qFEsjr8EQ/s640/Google+Earth+labeled+with+arrows.JPG" width="640" /></a></div><br />Just to be completely thorough, in 1835 Davy Crockett, commenting on the gangs of Five Points (today's boundary between Chinatown and the court district), said, "In my country, when you meet an Irishman, you find a first rate gentleman; but these are worse than savages; they are too mean to swab hell's kitchen."&nbsp; He was, however, neither referring to the place that is today's Hell's Kitchen, nor bestowing a name on <i>any </i>place.<br /><br />And finally, just to add to the confusion, I found a reference to Hell's Kitchen in a <i>Letter to the Editor </i>of <i>The New York Times </i>that predates the 1881 article.&nbsp; Abattoir Place had been in existence for 18 years on 39th Street prior to this citizen's complaint, miles across town, in 1877. (Mostly I'm including this because it is a bit entertaining, and a long time ago...)<br /><br /><blockquote><div style="text-align: center;">Hell's Kitchen</div><i>To the Editor of The New York Times</i>:<br />On ninetieth-street, between Lexington-avenue and Fourth-avenue [today's Park Ave.] are a row of tenement houses and a disreputable whisky [sic] den known as Hell's Kitchen. Undisturbed by the police, the frequenters of this den and the inmates of these houses indulge in almost nightly fights, sometimes in the streets, sometimes within doors, and often in both places at the same time. The noise occasioned by these brawls can be heard, generally, two blocks off, and the blasphemy and vulgarity of these brawlers, both male and female, is shocking in the extreme. On the evening of Thursday, the 26th inst., [sic] the disturbance in and around Hell's Kitchen commenced at 11 o'clock, and lasted until 1 o'clock, when it was stopped, not by the police, but by the weariness of those who took part in it. During this time invalids, aged people, and young children were deprived of sleep, while those who should have protected the peace were--well, no one within the vicinity of the disgraceful row knew where they were. The fact is that these frequent disturbances have become an unbearable nuisance, and, if the police captain of the precinct ornamented with Hell's Kitchen is unable to keep it in order, is it not about time that the Police Commissioners said something to the captain?<br /><div style="text-align: right;">CITIZEN</div><div style="text-align: left;">New-York, Friday, July 27, 1877.</div></blockquote>&nbsp; <br /><br />Just one more strand in the Gordian's Knot of a hunt for the origin of a name.<br /><br />Sorry for such a gruesome post so near Thanksgiving. Here are some pictures of the area today to take your mind off it...<br /><br />North side of 39th Street, looking toward 10th Avenue. Part of the Lincoln Tunnel complex of ramps. Somewhere around the yellow wall was where the Hell's Kitchen rookery was located. <br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: right;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TOxLQSpjWTI/AAAAAAAAAEo/8IlD0XZgW5I/s1600/IMG_0223.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TOxLQSpjWTI/AAAAAAAAAEo/8IlD0XZgW5I/s640/IMG_0223.JPG" width="640" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TOxLkefcpMI/AAAAAAAAAEs/V-aaL0odcO0/s1600/IMG_0224.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"></a></div><br />Abattoir Place today, further west on the same street, 39th Street between 10th and 11th Avenues.&nbsp; At the end of the block in the middle are the ventilation shafts for the Lincoln Tunnel.<br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TOx3qO6eAgI/AAAAAAAAAFc/ipdtPSM9TO8/s1600/IMG_0148.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TOx3qO6eAgI/AAAAAAAAAFc/ipdtPSM9TO8/s640/IMG_0148.JPG" width="640" /></a></div><br /><br />Approximate site of the Battle Row tenements, just east of the Hell's Kitchen rookery.&nbsp; It looks like a gallery but it's actually a clothes store...<br /><br /><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TOxM2IKIuGI/AAAAAAAAAE8/bmho1MsIVKw/s1600/IMG_0228.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TOxM2IKIuGI/AAAAAAAAAE8/bmho1MsIVKw/s640/IMG_0228.JPG" width="640" /></a><br /><br />Approximate site of the Sebasopol tenement.&nbsp; This building is 405 West 40th Street, and is <i>not </i>the old tenement building.&nbsp; <br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TOxPl9o9EDI/AAAAAAAAAFU/9j8Iw9wB1mc/s1600/IMG_0233.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TOxPl9o9EDI/AAAAAAAAAFU/9j8Iw9wB1mc/s640/IMG_0233.JPG" width="640" /></a><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">The day I went was the Hell's Kitchen Flea Market...</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TOxL7ONAyXI/AAAAAAAAAEw/_PsaoGkyzjc/s1600/IMG_0221.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TOx55LZ_gtI/AAAAAAAAAFg/bny0kZ9LXSQ/s1600/IMG_0221.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TOx55LZ_gtI/AAAAAAAAAFg/bny0kZ9LXSQ/s640/IMG_0221.JPG" width="640" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TOxL7ONAyXI/AAAAAAAAAEw/_PsaoGkyzjc/s1600/IMG_0221.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><br /></a></div><br /><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TOxOeNsCI2I/AAAAAAAAAFM/z3I4GLAqErE/s1600/IMG_0227.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TOxOeNsCI2I/AAAAAAAAAFM/z3I4GLAqErE/s640/IMG_0227.JPG" width="640" /></a><br /><br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TOxMO-WXSLI/AAAAAAAAAE0/0aYcvAPZJgE/s1600/IMG_0225.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TOxMO-WXSLI/AAAAAAAAAE0/0aYcvAPZJgE/s640/IMG_0225.JPG" width="640" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TOxMjW5mUJI/AAAAAAAAAE4/TfA14h44hlY/s1600/IMG_0226.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TOxMjW5mUJI/AAAAAAAAAE4/TfA14h44hlY/s640/IMG_0226.JPG" width="640" /></a></div><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TOxNlQ9AvkI/AAAAAAAAAFE/69V6BnjJ6qI/s1600/IMG_0226.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"></a><br />Today's Port Authority looks like a modern day Thunderdome on the cusp of the old...<br />&nbsp;<img border="0" height="480" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TOxN7vMu4FI/AAAAAAAAAFI/5sVZ1-oHpT4/s640/IMG_0197.JPG" width="640" /><br /><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TOxN7vMu4FI/AAAAAAAAAFI/5sVZ1-oHpT4/s1600/IMG_0197.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"></a><br /><br /><br /><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TOxOw1NuhrI/AAAAAAAAAFQ/pHoCdigJ8oQ/s1600/IMG_0195.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TOxOw1NuhrI/AAAAAAAAAFQ/pHoCdigJ8oQ/s640/IMG_0195.JPG" width="640" /></a><br /><br /><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TOxNI6WmkEI/AAAAAAAAAFA/L2ZT0Qh9V10/s1600/IMG_0239.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TOxNI6WmkEI/AAAAAAAAAFA/L2ZT0Qh9V10/s640/IMG_0239.JPG" width="640" /></a><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TOxL7ONAyXI/AAAAAAAAAEw/_PsaoGkyzjc/s1600/IMG_0221.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"></a> <br /><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TOxOeNsCI2I/AAAAAAAAAFM/z3I4GLAqErE/s1600/IMG_0227.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"></a><br /><div style="text-align: left;"></div><br />Finally, to show how in the midst of a place with such a dark and nefarious past the greatest good can come, here is the Metro Baptist Church, across from the old Sebastopol and next to the House of Blazes.<br /><br />This is where Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter stayed in 1985 during the launch Habitat for Humanity.&nbsp; They spent a week here, and the Secret Service slept on the bottom bunk in the men's dormintory.&nbsp; It's so incredible because here was where a president changed everything for what could/should be expected of&nbsp; future former presidents. And the Carters chose housing as their example.&nbsp; Happy Thanksgiving!<br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TOx7zyGW-TI/AAAAAAAAAFk/IU-WHSm6BgU/s1600/Church+of+St.+clemens+Mary+1913.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TOx7zyGW-TI/AAAAAAAAAFk/IU-WHSm6BgU/s640/Church+of+St.+clemens+Mary+1913.JPG" width="640" /></a></div><br /><br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/ManhattanUnlocked/~4/5xB2UjqPpzw" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>Robert Amellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06084801755976271616noreply@blogger.com126http://manhattanunlocked.blogspot.com/2010/11/why-hells-kitchen-follow.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2681192941667483351.post-41104505083885413632010-11-19T00:24:00.004-05:002011-02-16T21:29:31.658-05:00Harriet Tubman in Harlem: Not a Typical Outdoor SculptureThere's somewhere around 200 works of outdoor sculpture in Manhattan.&nbsp; Works in <i>human form </i>come in two basic types: real historical (e.g. George Washington), and allegorical, representing some sort of ideal (e.g. blindfolded justice).&nbsp; I'm not sure where Alice in Wonderland or Peter Pan figure in, but we'll put them aside for now.&nbsp; Of allegorical figures, the numbers are about even: 30 or so each of men and women representing everything from Heroism and Mercy to Truth and Beauty.<br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><br />Of the real historical figures, though, Manhattan has something on the order of 94 men and--up until Harriet Tubman set down on West 122nd in Harlem--5 women.&nbsp; Women who have risen to statue-worthy status are Joan of Arc, Eleanor Roosevelt (both in Riverside Park), Gertrude Stein (Bryant Park), Golda Meir (a bust on Broadway at 39th Street), and Mother Clara Hale (152 West 122nd).<br /><br />Technically I suppose we could include the enla<a class="cssButton" href="javascript:void(0)" id="publishButton" onclick="if (this.className.indexOf(&quot;ubtn-disabled&quot;) == -1) {var e = document['postingForm'].publish;(e.length) ? e[0].click() : e.click(); if (window.event) window.event.cancelBubble = true; return false;}" target=""></a>rged replica of Picasso's <i>Head of Sylvette</i> in the courtyard of&nbsp; NYU's Silver Towers, but 1. It's cubism and resembles a spaceship as much as a human head, and 2. She was Picasso's mistress, no Joan of Arc or Roosevelt. I suppose we could also count the statuettes along the facade of the I. Miller building at 46th Street in Times Square of Ethyl Barrymore, Marilyn Miller, Mary Pickford and Rosa Ponselle.&nbsp; I vote no because 1. Like allegorical figures each represents one of the theatrical arts: musical comedy, drama, opera and film, and 2. They are each represented as a character they were noted for, not themselves.<br /><br />Now, of the 200 or so sculptures in Manhattan, I have counted only about 6 or so in Harlem (though I'm not considering Morningside or Hamilton Heights, which can justifiably be considered Harlem).&nbsp; So the arrival of Harriet Tubman at 122nd Street and 7th Ave satisfies two shortcomings in the city's statuary stock: a statue of a <i>historic woman,</i> and another statue in <i>Harlem</i>.&nbsp; Here she is, along with some of the other outdoor sculpture of Harlem...&nbsp; (and thanks to Lee Gelber for always expanding my knowledge of New York.)&nbsp; <br /><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr> <td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TOYEMLEppII/AAAAAAAAACE/nvaqomLF6vY/s1600/IMG_0133.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TOYEMLEppII/AAAAAAAAACE/nvaqomLF6vY/s640/IMG_0133.JPG" width="480" /></a></td></tr><tr> <td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td></tr></tbody></table>I'll let the plaque speak for itself...be sure to read the last paragraph to understand the details in the monument <br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TOYE2Z66r-I/AAAAAAAAACI/GEGPeR_BymE/s1600/IMG_0138.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TOYE2Z66r-I/AAAAAAAAACI/GEGPeR_BymE/s640/IMG_0138.JPG" width="531" /></a></div><br />I made these especially large so you can see the details in the sculpture <br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TOYF6VvyhxI/AAAAAAAAACM/c4plaga8CxQ/s1600/IMG_0132.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="405" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TOYF6VvyhxI/AAAAAAAAACM/c4plaga8CxQ/s640/IMG_0132.JPG" width="537" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TOYGZH39p_I/AAAAAAAAACQ/KWlrF1D7Fqs/s1600/IMG_0136.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="410" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TOYGZH39p_I/AAAAAAAAACQ/KWlrF1D7Fqs/s640/IMG_0136.JPG" width="544" /> </a>&nbsp;</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Details along the base...</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TOYHbkO3pLI/AAAAAAAAACY/MQQJG-44UNo/s1600/IMG_0137.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TOYHbkO3pLI/AAAAAAAAACY/MQQJG-44UNo/s400/IMG_0137.JPG" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TOYHFquTONI/AAAAAAAAACU/bzKKCHqFGZY/s1600/IMG_0134.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TOYHFquTONI/AAAAAAAAACU/bzKKCHqFGZY/s400/IMG_0134.JPG" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Other Harlem sculpture...</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><i>Harlem Hybrid</i>, 1976 by Richard Hunt. An abstract rock outcropping on 125th Street with St. Joseph's Church behind...</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TOYJ67CKsUI/AAAAAAAAACk/-B5dvGyeXRM/s1600/IMG_0129.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TOYJ67CKsUI/AAAAAAAAACk/-B5dvGyeXRM/s400/IMG_0129.JPG" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Frederick Douglass (at 110th Street, maybe more Central Park than Harlem)...</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TOYI22nIAuI/AAAAAAAAACg/iZ-Mj3QLV3w/s1600/IMG_0141.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TOYI22nIAuI/AAAAAAAAACg/iZ-Mj3QLV3w/s400/IMG_0141.JPG" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/ManhattanUnlocked/~4/dbI_bwVXbHM" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>Robert Amellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06084801755976271616noreply@blogger.com6http://manhattanunlocked.blogspot.com/2010/11/harriet-tubman-statue-not-your-typical.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2681192941667483351.post-16632142583452326482010-11-17T21:10:00.005-05:002011-03-12T03:30:56.022-05:00Ghost of the Broadway Central Hotel<div class="MsoNormal"></div><div class="MsoNormal">My first post is a simple interesting one. I had just read <i>Alone Together: A History of New York’s Early Apartments</i> and had the book with me when I skated over to the site of the old Broadway Central Hotel (the west side of Broadway just north of the Bond Street intersection).&nbsp; It was built in 1871 and collapsed, as a welfare hotel, in 1973.&nbsp; The site is an NYU dormitory today. I saw a very distinct shape incised on the adjacent building where the hotel once stood. I pulled out the book and looked at a picture of the old hotel.&nbsp; Sure enough, the mark on the building was left from the old hotel, sometimes referred to as a ghost or a palimpsest. Here it is...<br /><br />Notice the distinct shape of the "Broadway Central Hotel" sign in the upper left corner. It juts out a bit from the main building...</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TObIZKkp9fI/AAAAAAAAADQ/I5NnISIixyI/s1600/Broadway+Central+Hotel.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TObIZKkp9fI/AAAAAAAAADQ/I5NnISIixyI/s640/Broadway+Central+Hotel.jpg" width="438" /></a></div><br />The mark on the adjacent building (built <i>after </i>the above picture) matches perfectly... <br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TORhp7GcXgI/AAAAAAAAAAQ/AjcN8U6g2QM/s1600/IMG_0019.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TORhp7GcXgI/AAAAAAAAAAQ/AjcN8U6g2QM/s320/IMG_0019.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td></tr></tbody></table>The site of the old hotel today is an NYU dormitory (behind the trees). Also, you can see the red brick building from the old post card view is still standing! <br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TORh7VVTgPI/AAAAAAAAAAU/--IBT1bG6fk/s1600/IMG_0018.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TORh7VVTgPI/AAAAAAAAAAU/--IBT1bG6fk/s400/IMG_0018.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td></tr></tbody></table>Look closely at the side of the building above the tree branches! <br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TORiOlHIDtI/AAAAAAAAAAY/G1Ev7Hog2WU/s1600/IMG_0020.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_QOQfpCJOYK4/TORiOlHIDtI/AAAAAAAAAAY/G1Ev7Hog2WU/s400/IMG_0020.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td></tr></tbody></table><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/ManhattanUnlocked/~4/GwR1qEQhH08" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>Robert Amellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06084801755976271616noreply@blogger.com17http://manhattanunlocked.blogspot.com/2010/11/ghost-of-broadway-central-hotel.html